Car Loan Delinquencies are Up

Car Loan Delinquencies are Up

Auto-loan delinquencies are on the rise as cash-strapped consumers increasingly struggle to stay current, The Wall Street Journal reports. Nearly $25 billion in auto loans are past due, according to a report by Experian Automotive from the Auto Finance Summit meeting in Las Vegas. Auto lenders saw a 9 percent rise in loans 30 days past due in the second quarter of 2008 from a year earlier, and an 11 percent increase in loans 60 days past due. WSJ reports that about 57 percent of borrowers with open loans have what is considered a prime credit rating, down from 61 percent two years ago. “There is a pretty big dollar burden out there in terms of delinquencies,” said Melinda Zabritski of Experian. All in all, there were about 64 million auto loans, worth $795 billion, on the books in the second quarter of 2008.