Wednesday, February 19, 2014

More and More Credit Cards

It looks as if banks are starting to loosen their credit standards enough to make a bit of a difference in Americans' wallets. In the fourth quarter of 2013, the number of new credit accounts opened rose by 2.8 percent, according to the Federal Reserve - despite the fact that consumers' creditworthiness didn't increase at all.

That puts the number of credit card accounts hold by Americans at a staggering 399 million. That's the most credit cards we've collectively held since the third quarter of 2009.

Even though we have more charging power in our wallets, Americans aren't running up significantly more debt. The upshot of all these new credit cards: Our outstanding balances increased by just 1.6 percent in that fourth quarter. But the fact that we have the ability to spend more is a good sign for the economy.

No comments:

Post a Comment