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Consumers were able to reduce the number of late payments they dealt with in 2011, but at the same time, were not able to reduce debt as they had in previous years.

The number of credit card balances that fell 90 days or more behind on payments slipped to just 0.78 percent of all accounts at the end of last year, according to new data from the credit monitoring bureau TransUnion. However, while consumers had generally been more conscientious in their debt relief efforts, that trend changed in 2011. The average credit card debt carried per borrower rose $239 over the course of the year to a total of $5,204, though that balance is still well below historic averages.

"[Last year] closed out with the lowest year-end card delinquency rate nationwide since 1995," said Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion's financial services business unit.

Credit card use ticked up considerably at the end of last year, as the improving economy continued to make consumers feel better about their personal finances, though some experts say those increases were the result of seasonal shifts in consumer shopping habits.

The amount of credit card debt owed to lenders in the metropolitan areas that were hardest hit by high balances in the past has been falling significantly in the last year.

Of the 100 metropolitan areas nationwide that had the largest credit card debt as a percentage of annual income at the end of 2010, nearly 60 of them had seen double-digit drops in those balances at the end of 2011, according to new data from the credit monitoring bureau Equifax. Perhaps not surprisingly, the areas where those falls were most precipitous were in states that were among the most affected by the economic downturn to begin with, including California, Florida, Louisiana and Washington. Five metropolitan areas in Florida saw double-digit drops, the most of any single state.

"It is interesting that [areas] from some of the states hardest hit by the recession showed some of the biggest reductions in credit card debt," said Trey Loughran, president of Equifax's personal solutions business. "This suggests that consumers from these hardest hit areas have been especially cautious in their spending and diligent in paying down their credit card debt."

The metropolitan area that saw the most significant debt relief was Port St. Lucie, Florida, which saw the percentage of income owed to lenders drop 23.59 percent between the fourth quarters of 2010 and 2011, the report said. Ocala, Florida's reduction approached 21 percent, and those in both Bremerton-Silverdale, Washington, and Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana also topped 20 percent.

Equifax data shows that consumers' overall debt – including mortgages, credit card balances, auto loans, student loans and so forth – has fallen close to 11 percent from the all-time high observed in October 2008, but that some $800 billion of that figure is composed entirely of credit card debt, the report said. However, consumers' credit card balances have been steadily falling since the fourth quarter of 2010, when consumers still owed an average of about 17 percent of their income to lenders.

Consumers have been making concerted efforts to reduce debt since the recession, and have largely been successful because they have both reined in spending considerably and also increasing the value of their monthly contributions to their outstanding balances. However, in recent months, some statistics have shown credit card borrowing ticking back up slowly, though some experts say this is merely the result of seasonal increases seen during the holiday season every year.

The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is once again stepping up efforts to help consumers avoid predatory practices related to credit card debt, this time by focusing on debt collections agencies and credit reporting bureaus.

The CFPB recently issued a proposal that would allow it to oversee some of the "larger participants" in the debt collections and credit reporting industries as part of its efforts to expand its regulatory efforts to nonbanks. Under the rule, the CFPB would regulate about 180 debt collections agencies, based on their collecting more than $10 million in receipts per year, and 30 credit reporting agencies, which have $7 million in annual receipts.

However, the CFPB is also required to define exactly what constitutes a "larger participant" by July 21, 2012, with an official rule, the report said. The current proposal will be opened to public comment for 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

Better protection from questionable lending, reporting and collections practices may help consumers to get a better handle on their debt consolidation efforts and get their finances back under control.

One of the best-known payment processors on the internet recently announced plans to expand its footprint into the physical world by partnering with major national chains.

PayPal, the online payment processing service owned by eBay, recently revealed that it was conducting a test run ofbeing a payment option at 51 Home Depot locations across the country but will likely be available in all of the hardware chain's stores by the end of February, according to a report from Reuters. In addition, executives at the company hope PayPal will be an accepted purchase method at as many as 20 major chains by the end of the year.

This process may be ideal for consumers who want to avoid taking on credit card debt, especially as they work to reduce debt across the board. Consumers will be able to select "PayPal" instead of "credit" or "debit" at checkout, then enter either a phone number linked to their account or swipe a specially-issued PayPal card. After entering a PIN to verify the purchase, the transaction will be complete.

Consumers can tie their PayPal account to a credit card or debit card as a debt consolidation tool, or deposit money into it directly.

During the recession, millions of consumers shied away from using their credit cards on a regular basis due to financial concerns that forced them to reassess their debt relief plans. But now, after many may have been able to successfully reduce debt, consumers are returning to credit use.

Visa recently announced that in the final three months of last year, the amount of card use, and spending, it observed rose significantly on a year-over-year basis. The number of transactions the company processed climbed 8 percent from 2010's total to 13.6 billion, and the amount of money spent on its branded debit, credit and prepaid cards jumped 11 percent to a total of more than $994 billion.

Recent studies have suggested that the new surges in card spending have to do with consumers continuing to move away from using cash to complete purchases, instead relying on credit and debit. But in the last few months, consumers have added significantly to the amount of credit card debt they carry. Some say this is the result of just seasonal increases in spending seen every year, but others believe the improving economy plays a role in consumers' confidence to better handle their accounts.

The federal agency tasked with helping to protect consumers from misleading or confusing lending practices is now looking into a service credit card issuers provide ostensibly to help avoid fraudulent credit card debt.

The new federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with the help of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, is looking into a plan offered by Discover Financial Services that says it will protect consumers in the event of misuse of their credit card account, according to a report from American Banker. Lenders have expressed concerns that heavier regulation of these plans will only lead to more debt relief issues for cardholders enrolled in them, but recent studies have highlighted that card issuers only return about 21 cents from every dollar paid into these premiums, and institutions turn about $1.3 billion in profit on them annually.

If the financial institutions offering these plans were to categorize them as insurance, that payout ratio would be illegal, and as a consequence, there is concern in the lending industry that the investigation could become broader, the report said.

Fraud can seriously impede consumers' ability to reduce debt, and carefully checking their monthly statements can help spot bogus charges.

While many aspects of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act have come under fire in recent months, particularly from Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently defended the law.

Geithner recently issued a statement in which he said that many aspects of the Dodd-Frank Act are already working to help consumers and businesses alike, and that those who would either work to slow, reverse or completely repeal the bill in the coming months would be doing a considerable amount of harm to the economy. That's because lawmakers are now writing a number of additional rules and regulations, which are not finalized as yet, within the framework of Dodd-Frank. Scaling it back, therefore, might cause added delays in whatever is currently being written.

He also said that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is doing a lot of good for consumers who previously had little recourse in dealing with disputes related to their outstanding mortgage bills or credit card debt.

The CFPB has been working to develop a number of protections for consumer credit accounts and help boost debt relief efforts, including the testing of new disclosure forms that simplify lending agreements for both credit cards and mortgages.

In an effort to help make credit card information safer and protect consumers from being hit by bogus credit card debt, MasterCard is rolling out a new plan to introduce a safer type of credit card within the next 14 months.

MasterCard, the world's second-largest processor of debit and credit card payments, recently unveiled what it calls the "roadmap" to EMV credit cards, which are considered far more secure than traditional cards because of the way they store information. EMV cards, also known as "chip and pin," use a microchip embedded within the card itself to store information and require the user to enter a code to confirm a purchase.

Nearly every credit card ever issued in the U.S. still relies on the magnetic strip technology to store information, but rising credit card fraud totals have prodded payment processors to push for the more secure route. The U.S. is the last major country in the world to still rely upon the old credit card technology.

Consumers should always carefully look over their monthly bills to make sure there is no fraudulent credit card debt on them. Leaving these charges unattended can make it more difficult to reduce debt going forward.