By NISHA RAMCHANDANI

MORE people here are struggling to meet credit card payments and personal loan instalments on time, but credit card delinquency and missed instalments are still below the highs during the Sars downturn in the second quarter of 2003.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, the proportion of people who missed at least one payment on one or more credit cards rose from 1.45 per cent in September to 1.51 per cent in October, 1.56 per cent in November and 1.67 per cent in December, data from the Credit Bureau shows.

The total credit card holder base in December 2008 came to 1.1 million people.

The figures for each month were also higher compared with the corresponding months in 2007. Still, they are lower than during Sars in Q203, when the monthly average delinquency rate hit 2.61 per cent.

The statistics show that men and consumers in the 30-34 age group are more likely to miss credit card payments.

And 21.2 per cent of those that had an account 30 or more days overdue were aged 30-34.

Also, 67.43 per cent of males were likely to miss making their credit card payments on time, as opposed to 32.57 per cent of females.

Similarly, the delinquency rate for personal loans is also on the rise.

The proportion of people with personal loan accounts 30 or more days past the date due increased from 4.24 per cent in September to 4.65 per cent in October, 4.98 per cent in November and 5.34 per cent in December.

In December, the total personal loan customer base was more than 65,000.

Again, the figures were higher in a year-on-year comparison, although missed payments on personal loans remained lower than the monthly average rate of 6.05 per cent in Q2 2003 after Sars.

The latest figures show that 68.7 per cent of males were more likely to miss personal loan payments versus 31.3 per cent of females, while 21.78 per cent of consumers who had a personal loan account 30 or more days overdue were in the 30-34 age bracket, the highest for age breakdown.

'The steady increase in delinquency is a concerning trend as we have not seen the bottoming of the economic fallout.

'It is also worrying as younger adults are showing an increasing propensity towards delinquency,' said Credit Bureau's executive director William Lim.

The need to develop greater financial literacy was highlighted in Parliament this month by Penny Low, MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC.

She said the debts of individuals in Singapore totalled $112 billion in 2008, 10 per cent higher than in 2007, and that credit card debt was $3.3 billion.

Among her suggestions were a high-level National Financial Literacy Advisory Council to coordinate efforts to step up financial education.

This article was first published in The Business Times.