Consumers Find Debt Piling Up

Gone for the foreseeable future are those halcyon days of consumer spending. Thanks in no small part to rising interest rates and higher gasoline prices, according to an Associated Press story, consumers are finding it harder and harder to budget out their funds to pay bills on time.

Credit counseling agencies ? at least those still in business — are reporting an increase in consumers seeking help with their mounting debt. “Consumers are carrying an exorbitant amount of debt,? said Howard Dvorkin, president of the nonprofit Consolidated Credit Counseling Services Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., ?and they don’t have any savings to fall back on if things don’t go right.”

One of the primary ways of measuring consumer financial distress ? besides staring forlornly into one?s own wallet and sighing ? is late payments on credit cards. The percentage of bank cards 30 or more days past due increased to 4.4 percent in the January-March quarter from 4.27 percent in the final quarter of 2006.

The Federal Reserve is also not necessarily helping matters. Their decision last week to raise short-term interest rates for the seventeenth consecutive time will boost borrowing costs for consumers yet again, likely prompting more delinquencies on credit card bills ? as well as on auto loans and mortgages.

You can read the full story at Consumers find debt piling up.