Rising Credit Card Charge-Offs Pose $1 Trillion Question

To be clear, this doesn't signal imminent collapse by any means, for either the $1 trillion of credit card debt or these lenders.

Loss and delinquency rates are still relatively low. Synchrony in particular has been exceedingly successful at expanding its business online, which arguably puts it in a better spot to attract younger customers going forward relative to bigger competitors.

But this consumer weakness is a new dynamic after years of households paying down debt and saving their money. Suddenly, investors are paying much more attention to how quickly lenders are increasing pools of money to compensate for unpaid bills. It doesn't seem as if the creditworthiness of consumers is deteriorating at an alarming pace, but it's concerning that so many people are failing to pay their bills when the economy is supposedly accelerating.

It's especially worrisome that credit card lenders are still aggressively trying to rake in new business. They want consumers to borrow more — even if that means that more customers end up getting in over their heads — as long as it means they get bigger interest rates and more revenue that offset increasing losses. This will only make the lenders and, more important, the consumers more vulnerable when the economy starts to contract.

Credit card debt isn't a serious problem spot yet. But it's important to watch, with next week's earnings offering clues into how quickly loan quality is deteriorating.

— Read Investing in Times of Trump, and Inflation on ThinkAdvisor.