Consumer credit isn't terrible

Daily Data: Consumers are applying for credit cards and things, and doing mostly OK

People need more credit, and they appear to be getting it, but there’s still some kernels of concern.

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Daily Data

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Consumer credit ain’t bad

The NY Fed released its latest installment of consumer credit survey data, and it’s not bad, all things considering.

The headline is that “credit application rates decline, rejection rates rise,” which is true, relative to 2022. Involuntary account closures also crept up, so that also doesn’t look great.

Applications up, rejections down

But, if you look at the data, it turns out that the change isn’t that terrible, and recently applications have gone up, while rejections have gone down:

Applications v. Rejections, All Credit

More applications, and less rejections, is good, hence the green smiley face.¹

Everyone needs a little more credit these days

If you wanted to read tea leaves a bit, you might notice that people with higher credit scores have recently decided they need to use credit cards:

Only subprime (the blue line) is applying less.

If you want to dig in even further, you can find reasons to be concerned, if that’s what you’re looking for.