Credit card losses continue to mount in January

The bad news about Americans with credit card trouble just keeps coming: Reuters reports that in January, card issuer Capital One saw charge-offs rise. The percentage of debt written off by the company as uncollectible rose to 10.41% last month, up from 10.14% in December.

Capital One is the third-largest issuer of Visa cards and the fifth-largest of MasterCards in the U.S., the article says, so it's safe to assume that Capital One's fortunes mirror that of the average American's finances. The percentage of accounts late in paying by 30 days or more was also up by a tiny fraction of a percent, while defaults on auto loans actually dropped slightly.