WASHINGTON—Consumers have begun 2015 using their credit cards more cautiously than at any time in the last four years.
According to the Federal Reserve’s latest data, credit card debt was down at a 0.3% rate in the first quarter, the lowest since the first quarter of 2011.
The decline comes as consumers in March drove an increase in credit card debt, which rose by a seasonally adjusted $4.4 billion that month, or at a 5.9% annual rate. That hike is the largest percentage increase since last July and follows two straight 3.3% monthly declines.
“Since the beginning of the recovery, and especially lately, revolving credit has had a hard time getting going. Consumers remain reticent to fund consumption with credit and they will probably remain so until the prospects for wage growth improve,” Tom Simons, economist at Jefferies, told MarketWatch.
The Federal Reserve said consumer credit increased overall by $20.5 billion in March, a seasonally adjusted annual growth rate of 7.4%