Rubbish Check
Fox Business · 14 August 2026
source“‘New York Fed finds credit card and auto loan delinquencies remain elevated’”
R3/ 10
Lightly altered
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates Fox Business's headline that credit card and auto delinquencies "remain elevated" a 3/10 because the NY Fed's own Q2 2026 report shows aggregate delinquencies actually improved, with the "elevated" credit card and auto rates flat, not rising, from 2024 levels.
The Verdict
Lightly altered. The headline is directionally true, the New York Fed did flag elevated new-delinquency levels, but it skips the headline fact from the same release that overall delinquency rates improved, and it doesn't hint that the "elevated" credit card rate has been essentially flat for two years rather than freshly deteriorating. One clause of buried good news, not a fabrication.
What actually happened
The New York Fed's Q2 2026 Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit found that aggregate delinquency rates improved, with 4.7% of outstanding debt in some stage of delinquency. Within that improving total, new delinquencies for auto loans and mortgages ticked up slightly and credit card new-delinquency rates stayed at levels the Fed itself called elevated but steady.
Key facts
- Aggregate delinquency: 4.7% of outstanding debt in some stage of delinquency, an improvement in Q2 2026, per the NY Fed release.
- Credit card debt over 30 days delinquent: about 9% of balances, roughly steady since hitting that level in 2024.
- Auto loans over 30 days delinquent: about 8%; mortgages: about 4%.
- Serious (90+ day) delinquency transitions, Q2 2025 to Q2 2026: credit cards 6.93% to 6.97%; auto loans 2.93% to 3%; mortgages 1.29% to 1.52%.
- NY Fed economists' own finding: the rising stock of 90+ day-delinquent credit card balances (7.6% in Q3 2022 to 12.8% in Q1 2026) reflects "a pool of stale, charged-off debts that lenders have been reporting for longer durations, rather than a fundamental worsening in the incidence of delinquency."
What to watch for
Watch whether the New York Fed's next release still separates the "stock" delinquency figure (inflated by aged charged-off debt) from the "flow" transition rate, since conflating the two is the easiest way for future headlines to overstate deterioration. Also watch student loan delinquency data, which the article notes is distorted by the post-pandemic resumption of default reporting.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
