Credit card companies facing overdue debts rise

In June the six largest US credit card lenders saw the rise of overdue rates while the previous two months showed some decrease at the expense of tax refunds used by consumers to pay debts. Now tax rebates are fading and unemployment along with food and fuel prices are increasing.

American Express, Bank of America, Capital One Financial, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Discover Financial Services reported that in June loans paid at least 30 days later averaged 4.03% of all credit card debt which is 0.05 percentage points higher than in May.

Kenneth Chenault, American Express chief executive stated that the US economic slowdown worsened in June, affecting even wealthier cardholders with high credit scores. The United States lost 62,000 jobs in June.

American Express ran across the largest rise in late payments in the month which increased from 3.05% to 3.21%. In comparison with other companies American Express enrolled more customers within the last several years but new accounts turned out to have higher failure rates.

Standard & Poor's Rating Services changed the credit outlook of the company from "stable" to "negative". According to Standard & Poor's "further declines in the housing market combined with increases in unemployment" may have adverse effect on the lender's future results.