The rate of credit card defaults and write offs fell further in the month of April this year to its lowest level since 2008. Of the top six major credit card lenders in the country, all of them with the exception of the Bank of America reported a drop in the rate of defaults and delinquency in April 2011. This seemed to herald good news to banks and credit unions that faced big losses with the onset of economic downturn a couple of years ago.

The onset of recession saw lenders cutting down on credit card approvals and available credit limits on existing cards. Fearing the worst, these financial institutions came up with tighter norms governing the issuance of cards and even cancelled the cards of people with really poor credit history. The number of write offs and late payments also rose exponentially during this period adding to the woes of the people. But, with things showing improvement now, banks are also beginning to relax certain norms and trying to get more customers to opt for their credit cards.

The only bank that saw an increase in the rate of defaults in April was the Bank of America. The charge off rate went up to 8.25% in April as compared to 8.18% in March. However the late payments that stood at 4.82% in March fell to 4.52% in April. American Express reported charge offs at the rate of 3.5% and the rate of late payments stood at 1.7%. Citi Group Inc, JP Morgan Chase, Capital One and Discover were the other major banks that reported a fall in delinquencies and defaults in April.