10%?

That is the current charge-off rate for Capital One US Credit Cards.

This means that today, with no sign of unemployment abating, over 10% of their debt portfolio is deemed to be uncollectable:

Capital One Financial Corp’s U.S. credit-card charge-offs rose to double digits in December, showing consumers became increasingly stressed in the holiday shopping month.

In a regulatory filing on Friday, Capital One said the annualized net charge-off rate — debts the company believes it will never collect — for U.S. credit cards rose to 10.14 percent in December from 9.60 percent in November.

I used to think that the banks couldn’t lose money when they paid 3% on savings accounts and got 18% on credit cards, but now that it’s 1½% and 28%, it looks like they are going under.

To quote The Hunt for Red October, “You arrogant ass. You’ve killed us! “

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