Consumer Credit Below Expectations On Slowdown In Student, Auto Loans; Credit Card APRs Back To All Time High

After several months of wild swings, moments ago the Fed published the latest consumer credit report (G.19) and it was quite tame by recent volatile trends.

Total consumer credit rose by $9.178BN in October (which is more contemporaneous than more other data points we have received in recent weeks thanks to the govt shutdown), which was down from a downward revised $11.0BN in Sept ($13.09BN pre-revision), and below the $10.48BN median estimate. The latest monthly increase pushed the total to a new all-time high of $5.084 trillion.

Looking at revolving credit (i.e., credit cards), the increase was $5.407BN to $1.317 trillion, the biggest monthly increase since July, if on the low side compared to the $8.7 billion average monthly increase from 2021 until the end of 2024.

Non-revolving credit (primarily auto and student loans), rose by $3.771BN, the lowest increase since February when we saw a decline of $2.4 billion. This increase brought the total nonrevolving credit to $3.767 trillion, a new record high.

While there was no detailed breakdown for October, the historical data showed that when broken down by components, student loans – now that the repayment moratorium is over – surged by $27.4 billion in Q3 to a record $1.841 trillion. As discussed previously, student loans have a magical capability of being abused for everything but college, which is why enterprising “students” binge on them any time they can to fund all their otherpurchases, except education-related. Meanwhile, car loans rose by a far more modest $4.0 billion to $1.564 trillion.

A few weeks ago Kelley Blue Book reported that the average new car price hit $50,000 for the first time ever. Well, as the next chart shows, there’s a reason why: it’s because the amount finance by new car loans also hit a new record high of $41K.

Finally, and this will come as a surprise to nobody, despite 1.50% in rate cuts by the Fed since last September, we can now confirm that rates on credit cards have gone… higher, as banks continue to bleed US consumers dry: at the start of 2025 the average rate on credit card accounts was 22.80%… and on Sept 30 the number was higher at 22.83%, just barely below the all time high of 23.37% set one year ago.