Buyers of credit-card debt have finally woken up and said "no mas." This will restrict credit card companies' access to cash, and, therefore, their ability to extend more credit to consumers.
In the months since the housing market crash consumers have switched their borrowing to credit cards. As that funding source, too, is dries up, brace for another sharp drop in consumer spending.
Bloomberg: Credit card companies were shut out of the market for bonds backed by customer payments in October for the first time in more than 15 years, as investors shunned the debt amid the global credit freeze.
A weakening job market and a looming recession are making it harder for consumers to make monthly payments, eroding confidence among investors about the safety of credit-card-backed bonds. It's the first month since April 1993 that there have been no sales, according to Wachovia Corp. data. Issuers sold $17.1 billion of the debt in October 2007, the data show...
Top-rated credit card-backed securities maturing in three years traded at a gap, or spread, of 475 basis points over the London interbank offered rate during the week ended Oct. 30, JPMorgan Chase & Co. data show, 25 basis points higher than the previous week. The debt was trading at 50 basis points more than Libor in January.
The higher cost to sell the bonds makes it more expensive for banks and credit card companies to fund loans to customers. New York-based American Express Co. paid 160 basis points more than Libor at a Sept. 11 sale of the securities compared with 30 basis points over the benchmark at a similar sale in October 2007, Bloomberg data show.
See Also:
Broke Consumers Hit Credit Cards For a Few Last Pennies
The Coming Credit Card Bust
US Consumers Are Broke
Can't "Deleverage" Our Way Out Of This Debt Mountain
