FICO, VantageScore Reports Show Stable Credit Scores as Consumer Financial Pressure Persists

Two new reports from FICO and VantageScore show U.S. consumer credit performance remaining broadly stable, with average credit scores holding near recent levels and delinquency improving or leveling off across major credit products. Beneath those aggregate measures, however, the data point to continued affordability pressures, increased personal borrowing and concentrated stress among certain borrowers.

The findings provide creditors and accounts receivable management professionals with a mixed picture. Consumers generally continue to make payments despite elevated living and borrowing costs, but FICO’s data show that financial strain is considerably greater among some lower-scoring borrowers and consumers with delinquent student loans. VantageScore, meanwhile, identified rapid growth in personal loan originations as an area to watch.

Two Scoring Reports Point to Stable Consumer Credit

The average FICO Score stood at 714 as of April, unchanged from FICO’s previous report in October 2025 and down one point from April 2025. The median FICO Score was 744, also one point below its year-earlier level, according to the company’s FICO Score Credit Insights: Fall 2026 report.

VantageScore’s more recent July CreditGauge analysis reached a similar conclusion. Its average credit score decreased slightly to 701 but remained within the 700-to-702 range recorded during the past year.

The two scores should not be directly compared because they are produced using different scoring models and methodologies. Their direction, however, provides two separate indications that aggregate consumer credit quality has changed relatively little.

Delinquency trends also showed signs of stability.

FICO reported that early-stage mortgage delinquency declined to 1.35% from 1.42% year over year, while 30-day auto delinquency declined 5 basis points to 2.64%. Bankcard 30-day delinquency remained around 2.7%, and personal loan 30-day delinquency held at approximately 1.9%.

VantageScore found that 30-to-59-day delinquencies across its population declined to 0.89% in July from 1.05% a year earlier. Mid-stage delinquency also fell, while late-stage delinquency was stable.

Stable Performance Masks Affordability Pressure

Consumers appear to be maintaining payment performance even as debt and household expenses remain elevated.

FICO reported that average bankcard balances increased 3.8% year over year to $7,793. Credit utilization nevertheless declined slightly, from 35.5% to 35.2%, because available credit, particularly among higher-scoring consumers, increased faster than balances.

VantageScore recorded a similar pattern in July. Average credit card balances increased 0.9% year over year to $6,450, while utilization declined to 30.15% from 30.55%.

The different balance and utilization figures reflect differences between the companies’ underlying datasets and methodologies, but both show balances increasing while utilization declined.

FICO’s broader affordability measures show why stable delinquency should not necessarily be interpreted as an absence of consumer financial pressure. The average monthly mortgage payment for a first-time homebuyer reached $2,563 in April, up 57% from $1,635 in April 2019. FICO calculated inflation at approximately 30% over the same period.

Among consumers with personal loans and FICO Scores below 600, average balances increased 44% from April 2019, compared with increases of about 20% among consumers scoring 600 to 699 and 19% among those above 700.

FICO’s accompanying consumer survey also found that 20% of U.S. adults said they had made less than a minimum payment or skipped a credit card or loan payment during the previous year, while 37% reported relying on ongoing financial support from others.

Personal Loan Growth Emerges as an Area to Watch

Unsecured personal lending stands out in the VantageScore data.

Personal loan originations increased to 3.49% in July from 2.98% in July 2025, a 17% relative increase and the strongest year-over-year growth among the major nonmortgage credit products VantageScore analyzed. Millennials and Gen Z recorded the largest increases in personal loan originations.

FICO also found that the share of consumers obtaining new personal loans has climbed above its pre-pandemic level, although the credit composition of those borrowers has shifted.

In April 2019, 29.9% of newly issued personal loans went to consumers with FICO Scores below 600 and 30.8% went to consumers scoring above 700. By April 2026, the below-600 share had fallen to 21.4%, while the above-700 share increased to 38.6%.

For ARM companies handling unsecured portfolios, the combination suggests that personal lending is expanding without a corresponding broad increase in delinquency so far, while lenders are increasingly originating loans to stronger credit profiles.

Student Loan Delinquency Signals Broader Financial Stress

FICO’s student loan findings provide one of the clearest indications of concentrated consumer distress.

Approximately 3.2 million consumers, representing 15% of student loan borrowers with a payment due, had been reported at least 30 days delinquent during the previous six months. Those borrowers experienced an average year-over-year FICO Score decline of 38 points.

Another 4.9 million consumers had previously become delinquent following the resumption of delinquency reporting but had since moved into another status, including becoming current, entering a repayment plan or moving into collections. Their FICO Scores increased by an average of 16 points year over year.

The effects extend beyond student loans. Among consumers with recent student loan delinquency, FICO found delinquency rates of 30.4% on bankcards, 25.5% on personal loans, 20.2% on auto loans and 15.4% on mortgages.

FICO’s survey found that 56% of adults with student loans said repayment caused them to rely more heavily on credit cards or other loans to keep up with bills during the previous year. The percentage reached 71% among Gen Z borrowers and 62% among Millennials.

For creditors and collectors, those findings suggest that student loan distress can be associated with payment difficulties across multiple account types rather than remaining isolated to education debt.

Consumers Continue to Prioritize Certain Debts

FICO’s analysis of payment behavior also offers insight into how consumers allocate limited resources when managing multiple obligations.

For the 2024-2026 period, FICO ranked auto loans first in its payment hierarchy, followed by mortgages, personal loans, bankcards and student loans.

Among consumers holding both auto loans and mortgages, the 90-day-plus delinquency rate was 3% for auto accounts compared with 3.6% for mortgages. Consumers with personal loans and bankcards had 90-day-plus delinquency rates of 11% and 21.2%, respectively.

The hierarchy indicates that stable aggregate credit performance can coexist with significant household financial pressure as consumers make choices about which obligations to prioritize.