U.S. credit card debt mounting

WASHINGTON, May 9 (UPI) -- Credit card delinquency rates in the United States are growing as expenses have risen and options for borrowing have narrowed, financial experts said.

Finance analysts at Moody's Investors Service said credit card delinquencies hit 4.53 percent in February, a four-year high, CNN reported Thursday.

Debt advisers at the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Atlanta said the average unsecured debt reported by their clients jumped from $25,700 in the first quarter of 2007 to $29,300 in 2008. And U.S. credit card debt soared 6.7 percent in the first quarter to to $957.2 billion, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday.

Analysts said cash is simply hard to find.

"Other sources of money for a lot of Americans are drying up," counseling manager Dick Reed told CNN.

In Atlanta, Reed's clients spent $577 for gas and groceries in April, up from $472 a year ago, CNN reported.

In years past, analysts said, many consumers would turn to home equity loans for cash. But the collapse of the housing market has made these loans hard to find.

"It's a more challenging economic environment. There's less money to go around," William Black, senior vice president at Moody's, said to CNN.