CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Credit-card debt has been falling for 16 straight months but consumers aren’t paying off their financial obligations as much you might think. Instead, they’re walking away from the debt, forcing credit-card issuers to write off as much as 90% of that reported drop, according to a new report by CardHub.com.

U.S. banks charged off a record $83.3 billion in credit-card losses last year. That makes up the bulk of the $93.2 billion drop in outstanding credit-card debt that was reported by the Federal Reserve for 2009.

In other words, only about $10 billion of the drop is attributable to consumers paying off their debt.

“For the first time in my 30 years in this business, the dollar amount of card loans finished the year lower than they started,” he said.Read more at www.marketwatch.com