Reversing July's hopes that credit card debt and delinquencies have stabilized - and the recent suggestions that the recession is coming to an end - Moody's Investors Service recently reported that U.S. credit card charge-off rates rose to a record high in August.

The charge-off index - which measures credit card loans that banks do not expect to be repaid, typically occurring after 180 days of delinquency - rose to 11.49 percent from 10.52 percent in July.

Moody's indicated that the worst is yet to come for the credit card industry, as charge-offs have not yet hit their peak.

"We continue to call for a recovery of the credit card sector to begin once industry average charge-offs peak in mid-2010 between 12 percent and 13 percent," Moody's reported.

In addition to charge-offs, credit card delinquencies - loans that are more than 30 days late - rose 0.7 points to 5.8 percent in August, while early-stage delinquencies spiked to 1.65 percent from July's 1.41 percent, "signaling higher losses in coming months," said Bloomberg.

This will also be compounded by the fact that back-to-school and holiday shopping will keep consumers from paying off their debts, Moody's told the Associated Press.

However, small businesses will be encouraged to know that increasing consumer debt seems not to have put a significant dampener on spending, as the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis indicated that personal consumption expenditures rose by 0.2 percent in July.