If you are behind with credit card payments, then you are certainly not alone.  Equifax Canada reports that More Canadians are in arrears on credit payments.

More than half a million Canadians are more than three months behind on their credit payments.  That represents a 19 per cent rise in the average delinquency rate in the year ending May 31.

In May, a report from the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada showed Canadians are increasingly relying on credit cards and credit lines to finance day-to-day expenditures.

• Household debt is at an all-time high reaching $1.3 trillion in 2008
• Canadian households are financing consumption activity with unearned money as families increasingly reach for credit to finance day-to-day living expenses.
• The majority (58%) of survey respondents with rising debt said that day-to-day living expenses are the main cause for the increasing debt. This was higher than the 52% reported in 2007.

Undoubtedly the same situation exists in the US.  The situation is likely to get even worse since Credit Card Issuers Are Raising Rates Ahead of New Law.

Credit card companies are raising interest rates and fees seven months before new rules go into effect that will limit their ability to do so, much to the irritation of Congress and consumer advocates.  The flurry of activity, which the banks say is necessary to shore up their revenue losses, has irked members of Congress, who passed a new credit card law, which was signed by President Obama in May.

The law, among other things, would prevent card companies from raising rates on existing balances unless the borrower was at least 60 days late and would require the original rate to be restored if payments are received on time for six months. The law would also require banks to get customers’ permission before allowing them to go over their limits, for which they would have to pay a fee.

Bank executives had warned that the new law would force them to increase rates and fees because it would keep them from properly managing borrowers’ risk. The argument is that if banks can’t raise rates on riskier customers, they will have to raise rates on all.

Chase is one bank that is increasing Credit Card Payments Ahead Of The Reform.

Chase told the Huffington Post that the changes would apply to less than 1 percent of its approximately 100 million active accounts.  “Chase has recently increased the monthly minimum payment on select accounts that have carried balances. Effective August 2009, impacted cardmembers will have their minimum payment increased from 2% to 5% of the statement balance,” said Chase spokeswoman Stephanie Jacobson in a statement. “Tens of millions of Chase customers have taken advantage of our promotional low rate financing over the last five years. Most of these loans have been paid back in less than 24 months. However, there have been a small percentage of customers that have not made as much progress in paying down these loans.”

Chase is not the only lender to take action that will raise costs for consumers since Obama signed the reforms into law in May. USAToday reported Monday that Chase and Bank of America are both raising balance transfer fees, and that Capital One and Citibank have raised interest rates. The Financial Times reported Wednesday that Citi is raising rates on millions of its customers in exactly the way the new legislation is supposed to prohibit.

This in all likelihood means that even more credit card debtors will be behind with their payments.  Hopefully the recession will begin to abate in the not too distant future and that will present a light at the end of the tunnel for at least some of these debt-stressed individuals.

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