Capital One Financial Corp and Discover Financial Services reported that credit-card charge-offs rose in November -- a sign that consumers remain under stress.

In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Capital One said the annualized net charge-off rate -- debts the company believes it will never collect -- for U.S. credit cards rose to 9.60 percent in November from 9.04 percent in October.

In another regulatory filing, Discover said its charge-off rate rose to 8.98 percent from 8.54 percent after two months of declines.

American consumers are still hurting and especially coming into the Christmas season, said Ken Crawford, senior portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management.

Capital One, the third-largest U.S. issuer of Visa-branded credit cards, said the accounts at least 30 days delinquent -- an indicator of future loan losses -- went up to 5.87 percent from 5.72 percent.

However, Discover showed a small decline in its delinquency rate to 5.65 percent from 5.72 percent.

Credit-card charge-offs and delinquencies usually track unemployment, which inched down in November to 10.0 percent from a 26-1/2-year high of 10.2 percent in October.

Still, 11,000 people lost their jobs last month, and analysts estimate unemployment will remain at high levels through 2010.

As card losses rose to record highs in recent months, lenders closed millions of accounts, trimmed credit limits and slashed rewards. The companies are also raising fees and interest rates ahead of a new consumer-protection law.

JPMorgan Chase & Co , Bank of America Corp , Citigroup Inc , and American Express Co are also due to report the monthly performance of their credit card portfolios on Tuesday.

Last week, Capital One Chief Executive Officer Richard Fairbank forecast that the bank's charge-offs would peak in the first quarter of 2010, hurt by weakness in the housing market and more job losses.

Capital One and Discover stock showed no trades in premarket activity. Capital One shares are up 29 percent in 2009, while Discover's stock rose 73 percent.

(Reporting by Juan Lagorio, editing by Maureen Bavdek)

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