Consumer credit report

U.S. consumer credit contracted $3.6 billion in July, the sixth decline in a row and amazingly, the 17th monthly net decline in the past year-and-a-half. What seems to be happening here is that households are cutting up their credit cards because that is where much of the contraction is occurring — outstandings here fell $4.4 billion and have not expanded since August 2008.

In fact, a survey by Javelin Strategy & Research found that 56% of households used credit cards last year, and this appears to have fallen to 45% in 2010, a far cry from the debt-binge days of 2007 when 87% of the consumer base was using credit cards to finance their purchases.
---Rosenberg