Consumer credit drops for first time in 11 months (by Steve Goldstein)

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Consumer credit declined in July for the first time in 11 months as Americans turned to their plastic less and as growth in student loans cooled, according to data released Monday. Consumer credit fell at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.5% to $2.71 trillion, the Federal Reserve said. Revolving debt like credit-card borrowing fell for the second month with a 6.8% slide. But the larger nonrevolving category like auto and student loans saw a slowing of the growth rate, down to just 1% from 9.8% in June. The Fed also made a substantial upward revision of data from December 2010 onwards, with June growth reaching 5.3% from a previously reported 3% and May growth of 8.7% from a previous estimate of 7.8%. June's level of credit was revised up to $2.71 trillion from $2.58 trillion.