It wasn’t supposed to work this way.

Credit card companies have long seduced customers with “buy now, pay later,” hoping they would pay at least a minimum amount month after month but never pay off their debts. Now, though, with the economy slowing and houses no longer easy sources of cash, a growing number of consumers cannot pay even the minimums.

In December, revolving debt  an estimated 95 percent from credit cards  reached a record high of $943.5 billion, according to the Federal Reserve. The annual growth rate of this debt increased steadily in 2007, reaching 9.3 percent in the last quarter, up from 5.4 percent in the first quarter.

The amount of debt that is delinquent  in which minimum payments are late but the accounts are still open  also appears to be on the rise. The Federal Reserve found that 4.34 percent of the credit card portfolios of the 100 largest banks that issue cards was delinquent in the third quarter of last year, up from 4.07 percent in the previous quarter. Charge-offs  accounts closed for nonpayment  also grew in that period, and banks expect charge-offs to keep rising in 2008.

“It’s not that card debt is unmanageable for everyone,” Adam J. Levitin, a credit expert and an associate professor of law at Georgetown University, wrote in an e-mail message. “Rather, it is unmanageable for some (and a growing group, it seems).”