Citigroup Credit Card Delinquency Rate Improves; AmEx Holds Steady

Credit card firms Citigroup and American Express have released statistics on the August delinquencies in credit card payments, with Citi’s delinquency improving and American Express holding steady.

Citi’s delinquency rate of 0.8% in August was an improvement from 0.87% in July. It was also below the three-month average of 0.86%, Seeking Alpha reported.

The net charge-off rate for Citi in August was 1.62%, which was higher than July’s 1.52% and below its three-month average of 1.65%, the report stated.

American Express, meanwhile, had an August delinquency rate of 0.6%, which was unchanged from June and July, according to a separate Seeking Alpha report. It was also far below the August 2020 delinquency rate of 1.2%.

The net write-off rate for American Express for U.S. consumers in August was 0.6%, which was lower than July’s 0.7% and far below the August 2020 rate of 2.5%., the report stated

U.S. small business cardholders at American Express had a delinquency rate in August of 0.5%, which was higher than July’s 0.4%, according to the report. The net write-off rate was 0.5%, which was unchanged from July.

In other news, U.S. credit card companies are attempting to get households to borrow more as families participate in the country’s economic rebound using money they saved during the pandemic rather than the fresh borrowing that usually accompanies and drives economic upticks.

Read more: US Credit Card Issuers Up the Rewards Ante to Attract Cardholders

Balances owed on credit cards issued by the country’s biggest banks fell between 9% and 14% for the first quarter of 2021 compared with the first quarter of 2020.

To compensate, credit card companies are offering interest rates of 0% on transferred balances for up to 18 months.

Online offers by companies seeking new customers increased 85% in May compared with May of last year.