Dive Brief:

• More U.S. consumers are paying their credit card bills on time even as total credit card balances are rising, according to data released last week by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
• The percentage of credit card balances that are past due and the rate of charge-offs both declined in the third quarter of 2025 compared to the same period the previous year, the Philly Fed found in its quarterly credit card and mortgage survey, released Wednesday. Figures from the fourth quarter are not yet available.
• Meanwhile, total spending on credit card accounts continued the steady incline that began at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Philly Fed's data.

Dive Insight:

"Taken together with broader economic indicators, the data present a mixed picture: Consumers are navigating economic uncertainty, yet credit card performance continues to improve," a Philly Fed spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The changes were comparatively small. The percentage of balances that are 30 days or more past due fell to 3.29% in the third quarter, compared to 3.54% in the third quarter of 2024, while the percentage of balances that are at least 90 days past due fell to 1.62%, compared to 1.75% a year earlier.

The total purchase volume on credit card balances in the U.S. grew to $945.1 billion in the third quarter of 2025, compared to $889.1 billion a year earlier.

The net charge-off rate dropped to 4.99% in the third quarter of last year, compared to 5.57% a year earlier. The most recent figure was also down from 6.02% in the first quarter of 2025. A charge-off occurs when a creditor — such as a bank — decides a loan is unlikely to be repaid and writes it off.

Balances that were past due rose slightly compared to the second quarter of 2025. That said, delinquencies and total balances have skyrocketed since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2020.

The total purchase volume on credit card balances in the U.S., for example, was $443.92 billion in the second quarter of 2020, when the first cases of the COVID-19 virus were detected in the United States, less than half the $945.1 billion figure for the third quarter of 2025.

The spending increase outpaced inflation. Prices were roughly 25% higher in December compared to March 2020, at the onset of the pandemic, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator.

While Americans’ credit card balances have dipped and spiked since 2020, they have generally trended upward, along with delinquencies.