Total card receivables rose 6.6% or $4.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, after falling 0.2% in the previous quarter, the Monetary Authority says.

The rise was largely due to festive spending as the year closed, and salaries tax payments using credit cards. The total number of credit-card accounts also grew 200,000, to 12.4 million.

The rollover amount, which reflects the amount of borrowing by customers using credit cards, dropped $400 million to $21.1 billion at the end of December.

The charge-off amount fell to $564 million or 0.8% of average receivables, from $720 million in the previous quarter. The quarterly annualised charge-off ratio also fell to 3.1% from 4.08%.

The transfer of rescheduled receivables outside the surveyed institutions' credit-card portfolios fell to $280 million, from $390 million in the previous quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the delinquent amount dropped to $255 million from $323 million in the previous quarter. The delinquency ratio also fell to 0.34% from 0.46%. The combined delinquent and rescheduled ratio dipped to 0.46% from 0.58%.