let us all blame the price of gas for all our woes
Gas prices blamed for record past-due credit accounts
By Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The percentage of credit card payments that were past due shot up to a record 4.81% in the second quarter as surging gasoline prices strained budgets and made it difficult for some people to pay their bills.
The American Bankers Association said Wednesday that the seasonally adjusted percentage of credit card accounts 30 or more days past due in the April-to-June quarter was the highest since the association began collecting this information in 1973. That follows a delinquency rate of 4.76% in the first quarter.
"The rise in gas prices is really stretching budgets to the breaking point for some people," the association's chief economist, Jim Chessen, said in an interview. "Gas prices are taking huge chunks out of wallets, leaving some individuals with little left to meet their financial obligations."
And that report was for a period before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita send energy prices into the stratosphere.
While Chessen mostly blamed high gasoline prices for the rise in credit card delinquencies, other factors played a role, he said.
With personal savings rates dismally low, people have less of a cushion to absorb the big jumps in energy, Chessen said. The personal savings rate dipped to a record low, negative 0.6%, in July.
Rising borrowing costs also probably contributed to the spike in credit card delinquencies, he said.