Revolving credit, which includes credit cards, rose at a 14.5% annual rate in September.

Among consumers living paycheck to paycheck who paid bills without difficulty, confidence in managing debt fell 10.1 percentage points.

The fastest-growing part of consumer credit in September was the kind that lets a household put this week’s groceries on next month’s bill.

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The Federal Reserve’s Friday (Nov. 6) G19 report on consumer credit indicated that revolving credit, which includes credit cards, accounted for more than half of September’s $28 billion increase in consumer credit despite making up about a quarter of outstanding balances.

And what leaves households with less money to pay the card bill? Among cardholders who told PYMNTS Intelligence in October that they were paying in full less often than a year earlier, 29.6% said their regular expenses had risen and 27.5% said those expenses exceeded their income. Only 9.2% named a large unexpected expense as the main reason. That puts the emphasis on bills households expect to pay again next month. A separate July survey identified groceries, utilities and fuel or transportation as the most commonly cited sources of summer budget pressure.

9% in August. 5% annualized increase. 7% in July. Over the full quarter, the two categories grew at nearly the same rates. September’s acceleration came from the rebound in revolving balances.

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