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“Traditionally, someone who goes into bankruptcy, they missed a payment, then two payments, then three payments and then they go bankrupt,” said Tom Higgins, vice president of analytics at TransUnion. “Now, what we are seeing is people who make all the minimum payments [on their credit cards] and then all of a sudden they go bankrupt. It’s harder to predict when someone is going to go bankrupt than in the past just by looking at their credit information.”

Part of the reason is that consumers have a wider array of credit options — credit cards, leasing companies, private lenders — than ever before, and they’re able to spread out their debts and shuffle them, making a payment here then transferring the loan to a new credit supplier to avoid late penalties.

Another factor is low interest rates which enable borrowers to carry more debt than they could historically at very low cost.

Borrowers are able “to consistently open up more and more credit over the years,” said Mr. Mantin. “That allows them, if you just take a little from each card, you can satisfy [your creditors]. You can sustain something like for that for years.

“Many people are hopelessly insolvent but they’re not delinquent. From a credit report they are making their payments on time but they’ve got no reasonable prospect of ever paying this debt off.”

According to Mr. Mantin, most of those who get in trouble are not frivolous spenders but people who suffer a job loss, a divorce or other life-changing event.