Credit Card Delinquencies Fall

Fewer Americans are falling behind on credit card payments according to data for February released on Monday from some of the top credit lenders, indicating that the stress on consumers may be easing up.

The charge-off rates for Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) and American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) were mixed according to regulatory filings.

The most recent data is a continuation of trends form the previous two months as credit card companies are seeing customers emerge from the impact of the financial crisis.

The lenders increased credit card rates last summer, which has led to an expected rise in charge-offs in early 2010, and will likely continue in the March.

Capital One showed the sharpest drop in delinquency rates in February, dropping to 5.51 percent from 5.80 percent in January, while its annualized charge-offs fell to 10.19 percent from 10.41 percent. Capital One is the third largest issuer in the U.S. of Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) branded credit cards and the fifth-largest issuer of MasterCard (NYSE: MA).

The largest issuer of Visa cards, JPMorgan reported that delinquency rates fell 4.67 percent from 4.75 percent, while the lender showed the largest drop of the five companies in the month for charge-offs, dropping to 9.21 percent from 10.91 percent.

The largest U.S. bank, Bank of America showed a drop in delinquency rates fell to 7.23 percent from 7.35 percent, but charge-offs increased to 13.51 percent from 13.25 percent.

Delinquency rates at Discover dropped to 5.50 percent from 5.55 percent, but charge-offs jumped to 9.11 percent from 8.58 percent.

For American Express, delinquency rates remained flat at 3.6 percent and charge-offs rose to 7.4 percent from 7.0 percent, which both are the lowest among the five companies.

Citigroup reported a small rise in delinquencies to 5.95% last month from 5.75% in January.