By YOUNG MONEY Staff
27 July 2010

A new report finds that for the third straight month credit card charge offs have fallen, which might be good news for Americans looking to get out of debt.

According to the June credit card report from credit-rating agency Moody's, credit card charge offs - those debts credit card companies deem as uncollectable - fell to 10.28 percent for the month, 43 percentage points below May's number.

In addition, the report found that the credit card delinquency rate - the percentage of accounts that are at least three months overdue - fell for the eighth consecutive month to 5.08 percent. Moody's notes that this is the lowest delinquency rate in 17 months.

While the early stage-delinquency rate also fell slightly (0.01 percent), Jeffrey Hibbs, an analyst at Moody's, said this number will likely increase over the coming months. Still, Hibbs said, the country is in much better shape than it was months ago.

"Overall, compared to a year ago, delinquency trends are clearly improving across the industry and are consistent with our expectation for lower charge-off rates in the months ahead," he said.