According to TransUnion, a credit reporting agency, credit card delinquency, defined as the ratio of borrowers 90 days or more delinquent on one or more of their credit cards, jumped 11% to 1.32% in the first quarter this year. This is a 9.1% jump over the last quarter of 2008. “This increase could be an indication that tax refund checks, typically used to pay down balances during the first quarter in years past, are now being used to cover daily living expenses,” said Ezra Becker of TransUnion. The agency, on the basis of its analysis of 27 million individual credit files, said the average borrower debt rose 4.09% from the previous year to $5,729. Delinquency rates were highest in Nevada, at 2.44%; Florida, with 1.9%; and Arizona, 1.68% while South Dakota and Alaska had the lowest delinquency rates at 0.77%. With unemployment reaching a 25-year high, credit card delinquencies may continue to climb up. TransUnion expects the delinquency rate to reach 1.7% by the end of 2009.

The report said the impact of the recent changes to credit card regulations on delinquency rates is still unknown.