NEW YORK – Credit card companies can thank the economic recession and rising unemployment for what will be a record 8% charge-off of uncollected debt next year.

A recently released Standard & Poor's report "Over Our Heads: Can U.S. Consumers Repay Their Debts in the Recession?" finds that since the late 1990′s Americans have outspent their incomes and acquired record debt particularly on credit cards.

According to the report's author S&P Chief Economist David Wyss, our savings rate, which sunk to .9% in November, combined with zero-rate auto-financing deals and low mortgage rates have further aggravated the build-up of debt.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.