Report: More LIers fall behind on credit card bills

More Long Islanders fell behind on credit card bills in May than a year ago, according to an index of default rates released Tuesday.

That runs counter to last month's national trend of lower credit card default balances, according to the Consumer Credit Default Indices by Standard & Poor's and Experian.

In Nassau, the bank credit card default index was up 19 percent from May 2009. In Suffolk, the rate was 22 percent higher than a year ago.

Nationwide, the credit card default rate was down 8 percent from a year ago.

The index, which launched a month ago, tracks consumer defaults in four loan categories: auto, credit card, first mortgage lien and second mortgage lien. It is a measure of the proportion of consumer credit accounts that go into default for the first time each month across all four loan types, and is weighted according to the balances involved. The lower the number, the better.

Across the United States, monthly default rates declined in all categories for the first time since December 2009.

"The declines reflect continuing efforts by consumers to bring their debt levels down following the financial crisis and recession," said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor's, a Wall Street rating agency.

Long Island homeowners did better making payments on their first and second mortgages.

The biggest drop was in Nassau, where 63 percent fewer borrowers defaulted on second mortgages compared with a year ago.