Americans scored a new record for outstanding credit card debt in Q4, when total open card accounts likewise reached a new all-time high.

That’s according to the latest vintage of the New York Fed’s household debt report, released on Tuesday.

Credit card balances rose nearly 5% in the fourth quarter versus Q3 and more than 14.5% YoY, hitting a truly “impressive” $1.13 trillion in the process.

The aggregate number of open accounts neared 600 million. As a reminder: That count isn’t de-duplicated. Jointly-held accounts would be counted twice, so it overstates the case. Still, it’s fair to assess that Americans have a lot of credit cards.

Is any of that worrisome beyond what it conveys about the country’s commitment to the poisonous religion of consumerism? Maybe.

Indeed, one of the key takeaways from the report was a further increase in balances transitioning to delinquency.

Annualized, around 8.5% of card balances transitioned into delinquency during Q4. That’s nowhere near financial crisis levels, but it’s the highest quarterly flow rate since Q2 of 2011.

Delinquencies classified as “serious” rose across every age group, the New York Fed noted, before emphasizing that “younger borrowers surpass[ed] pre-pandemic levels” on that score. The figure above shows 18-29 year-olds, but the same is generally true of thirtysomethings.

I wouldn’t call this a bad omen necessarily, but it’s not good either. Certainly, it underscores the notion that the myriad cushions, buffers and macro-policy dynamics which suppressed delinquency rates post-pandemic are beginning to fade.

Of course, some credit card borrowers pay off their balances each month, but anyone who doesn’t is currently financing purchases at severely punitive rates.

On the bright side, overall delinquencies (i.e., for all borrower cohorts across all types of loans and debt) are still more than 1.5ppt below pre-pandemic levels.