It's unsettling that a growing number of Americans arefalling behind on their auto-loan and credit-card bills.But it's even more unnerving that analysts seem somewhatsurprised by the pace and scope of late payments and losses.Consider private-label credit card company Alliance DataSystems, for example. This week it reported a “dramatic drop”in recovery rates in April, which led research firm Compass Pointto question what the lender “may be doing operationally tocreate so much more volatility in recoveries than its peers,”Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.

Meanwhile, lenders including Santander Consumer USA and AllyFinancial have been hit by a surprisingly steep deterioration inconsumer creditworthiness. Their share prices haveslumped this year as they set aside more money thanexpected to cover loan losses and update forecasts toinclude deeper declines in used car resale values.

Capital One and Synchrony recently raised their forecasts fornet credit-card charge-offs in 2017, citing weakness among subprimecustomers rather than their previous rationale of portfolio growthand aging, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.