Late Payments on Credit Cards Increase Sharply for Small Businesses

From the WaPo: Small firms struggle to pay credit card debt As credit standards loosened at the beginning of the decade, banks expanded their small-business credit card offerings. ... The result was a boom: Small businesses will charge 2 1/2 times more this year than when they ran up about $140 billion in 2002, according to estimates from TowerGroup, a financial service research and advisory firm. But as the economy slowed, so did payments. Major small-business credit card issuers reported a sharp increase in late payments and bad debt over the last year. Now credit card issuers are becoming more careful. "The mantra before was bigger is better in the card business; now [issuers] are becoming much more risk-averse," said Brian Riley, research director for bank cards at TowerGroup. "Standards are getting tightened in line with... [read full story]