In recent months, many major credit card lenders have seen the number of defaulted accounts they had to strike from their records continue to decline even as the national unemployment rate remained at or near unusual highs, according to a report from Bloomberg. Joblessness has hovered near 10 percent for some time, even as Moody’s Investor Services found charge offs slipped to 8.79 percent in October, the lowest total since January 2009.

This is because many consumers who have been without a job for a considerable amount of time can not only no longer pay their bills, but also cannot obtain a new line of credit, the report said.

“You can only charge off once,” said Capital One chief executive officer Richard D. Fairbank during a recent investor presentation, according to the news source. “Someone who’s been unemployed for three years, I can pretty much guarantee that long ago they said goodbye to their Capital One credit card.”

Many consumers who face financial hardships such as unemployment may lean more on their credit cards to make ends meet as their other income dries up. As a result, they remain unable to find work and may be more likely to default as bills climb higher.

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