U.S. Consumer Credit Rises

A jump in student loans pushed up outstanding U.S. consumer credit borrowing figures, offsetting a 26-month decline in credit card use.
By Laurie Kulikowski ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Outstanding U.S. consumer credit borrowing figures jumped in October, according to a

Federal Reserve

report.

In the report released Tuesday, the Fed said that October consumer credit rose at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.7%, or $3.4 billion, to $2.4 trillion.

At the same time, the report said that revolving credit in October fell $5.6 billion, or 8.4%, to $800.5 billion. The last time credit-card debt rose was August 2008, according to the report.

Record high unemployment has put a crimp in the earnings at retail banks and credit card lenders including

Bank of America

(BAC) - Get Report

,

JPMorgan Chase

(JPM) - Get Report

,

Citigroup

(C) - Get Report

as well as

Capital One

(COF) - Get Report

,

American Express

(AXP) - Get Report

and others to feel the pain as consumers were unable to pay their bills.

Consumer Debt Dips in Third Quarter

According to a separate report by TransUnion, roughly 8 million consumers stopped actively using credit cards over the past year as credit card, as delinquencies continued to decline, the

Wall Street Journal

said.

The report said non-revolving credit rose 6.8%, or $9 billion, to $1.6 trillion.

The Fed report excludes mortgage loans and other real-estate secured loans.

-- Written by Laurie Kulikowski in New York.

To contact the writer of this article, click here:

Laurie Kulikowski

.

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Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors, reporters and analysts from holding positions in any individual stocks.

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