The potential pool of customers who just filed for bankruptcy and could be turning to buy-here, pay-here dealers to secure transportation ticked up again in November.

According to data provided by Epiq Systems, the American Bankruptcy Institute indicated consumer bankruptcies increased slightly in November as the 57,302 reported filings were 2 percent more than the 56,394 consumer filings registered in November of last year.

Total bankruptcy filings registered a slight increase, too, as the 60,287 reported filings in November represented a 2-percent lift year-over-year above the November 2016 total of 59,349.

Commercial Chapter 11 filings rose 12 percent, year-over-year, climbing from 386 to 433. Commercial bankruptcy filings came in at 2,985 in November, a 1-percent rise from a year ago.

“Distressed consumers and businesses seeking the financial relief of bankruptcy are deterred by high filing costs,” ABI executive director Samuel Gerdano said.

Looking at a month-over-month comparison, bankruptcy volume slowed in November versus October.

Total bankruptcy filings for November decreased 7 percent from the previous month’s total of 64,601 filings. Noncommercial filings also fell 7 percent from the previous month’s noncommercial filing total of 61,591. November’s commercial filing total represented a 1-percent decrease from the October commercial filing total of 3,010.

The average nationwide per capita bankruptcy filing rate for the first 11 calendar months of 2017 fell slightly to 2.51 (total filings per 1,000 population) from the rate registered during the first 10 months of the year.

The average daily filing total in November was 3,014, a 2-percent increase from the 2,967 total daily filings registered last November.

States with the highest per capita filing rates (total filings per 1,000 population) through the first 11 months of 2017 were:

1. Alabama (5.77)

2. Tennessee (5.60)

3. Georgia (4.72)

4. Mississippi (4.20)

5. Utah (4.06) 

ABI has partnered with Epiq Systems, a provider of managed technology for the global legal profession, in order to provide the most current bankruptcy filing data for analysts, researchers and members of the news media.