A updated payments study from TransUnion, one of three nationwide credit bureaus, suggests that auto loans have supplanted credit cards as the monthly bill payments that consumers are most likely to make, indicating yet another shift in what had been previously understood as predictable consumer behavior.

“The reversal in payment patterns between credit cards and mortgages has been well documented, but our findings were illuminating because it had not been previously clear that auto loans were considered a higher priority by consumers than both credit cards and mortgages,” said Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion's financial services business unit. “With unemployment remaining high and real estate values remaining stagnant or further depreciating, consumers continued to pay their credit cards ahead of their mortgages. However, the importance of their auto loans appears to have trumped even the value they place on their credit cards.”

Becker explained that the first shift the consumer payments occurred when consumers moved from paying their mortgages first to paying credit card bills first. Becker explained this shift by noting that the decline in real estate values had undermined the value of homes in many consumers' minds, even if they were not under water on their mortgages. At the same time, credit card companies cutting back on credit lines and stopping making offers of new cards heightened the perception that credit cards needed to be kept current.