UPDATE 1-Capital One credit card defaults fall in February

* U.S. credit card charge-offs decline to 10.19 pct in Feb

* U.S. credit card delinquencies fall to 5.51 pct in Feb

March 15 (Reuters) - Capital One Financial Corp's (COF.N) U.S. credit-card defaults fell in February, in a sign that consumer stress may be easing.

In a regulatory filing, Capital One said the annualized net charge-off rate -- debts the company believes it will never collect -- for U.S. credit cards fell to 10.19 percent in February from 10.41 percent in January.

Accounts at least 30 days delinquent -- an indicator of future loan losses - declined to 5.51 percent from 5.80 percent.

Capital One is the third-largest U.S. issuer of Visa (V.N) branded credit card and the fifth-largest issuer of MasterCard (MA.N) branded credit cards.

For U.S. auto loans, Capital One's charge-off rate was 2.50 percent in February, down from 4.27 percent in January, and the delinquency rate fell to 7.99 percent from 9.61 percent.

In credit card international operations, including Canada and Britain, the charge-off rate decreased to 8.07 percent from 9.03 percent, while the delinquency rate was 6.68 percent, up slightly from 6.66 percent.

Capital One routinely kicks off the monthly reporting of credit card charge-offs. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Citigroup Inc (C.N), American Express Co (AXP.N) and Discover Financial Services (DFS.N) are expected to report the monthly performance of their credit card portfolios later on Monday.

Capital One shares closed at $39.89 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore; Editing by Anne Pallivathuckal)