NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- American Express reported first-quarter profits that more than doubled over last year, as consumers slowly revved up their spending and paid more of their bills.
The credit card giant said income rose 103% to $885 million, or 73 cents per share for the three months ending March 31. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting $777.4 million in profit, or 63 cents per share.
AmEx (AXP, Fortune 500) posted a $437 million profit last year, when cardmember spending slowed during the recession.
Sales rose 11% to $6.6 billion, beating analysts' forecasts of $6.4 billion.
Shares of AmEx were up about 1.5% in after-hours trading, following the news.
The company cited an overall boost in cardmember spending, as well as big turnarounds in spending from corporate cardmembers and banks who issue cards on the AmEx network, as factors driving the strong results.
On a call with investors Thursday, AmEx CFO Dan Henry pointed out that spending increased more rapidly among AmEx cardmembers than in the overall industry, probably because the company's cardmember base reflects a more affluent population.
"This quarter is a clear demonstration of our differentiated business model reflecting the makeup of customer base and design of our products," Henry said.
The company's U.S. credit card unit, its largest division, reported a $428 million profit, compared with a $7 million loss a year ago. Revenue was up 14% in that division, as consumers increased their spending and use of credit cards. Revenue from international cards and global commercial services were up 9% each.
Meanwhile, the number of cardmembers who were delinquent on their payments by 30 days or more was down to 3.3%, from 5.1% of all cardmembers last year.
AmEx cited improving credit quality as another part of the rosier picture. The company set aside only $687 million for losses in its U.S. cards unit, versus $1.4 billion in the year-ago period.
The two largest U.S. credit card issuers, banks JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) also posted better results from their credit card divisions last week.
BofA's credit card business swung from a year-ago loss to a $952 million profit in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase's card division took a $303 million hit, but that was a smaller loss than a year ago.
Capital One (COF, Fortune 500) also announced better-than-expected quarterly earnings after the bell Thursday. 
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