Fresh Consumer Credit & Debt Data

Some fresh consumer debt stats for you (A mix of December 2019 & April 2020 data)..

  •  Average FICO credit score was 695 and on VantageScore it was 673 (as of December)
  • Approximately 14% of the population has no credit score whatsoever and is labeled as credit invisible.(as of December)
  • Credit card balances from month-to-money increased to $466.2 billion in December 2019
  • Average American Household Debt: $5,700. Average for balance-carrying households: $9,333
  • Total Outstanding U.S. Consumer Debt: $3.9 trillion. Total revolving debt:$1.03 trillion
  • 41.2% of all households carry some sort of credit card debt.
  • Households with the lowest net worth (zero or negative) hold an average of $10,308 in credit card debt.
  • The Northeast and West Coast hold the highest average credit card debt – both averaging over $8,000.
 
April 2020 data

According to a survey ran in December 2019 by GoBankingRates, 69% of respondents said they have less than $1,000 in a savings account, compared to 58% in 2018. Keep in mind this was in the height of 11 years of expansionary market and right when the stock market kept printing all time highs. 

 

“It’s puzzling to me that if the economy is doing so well and that we’re so close to full employment, that consumer confidence is up … that we haven’t seen the numbers move much in people’s ability to save,” said Bruce McClary, spokesman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.

CPI Vs Income

Credit Score Distribution

As you would expect, credit scores get better as individuals get older and the gap between excellent and average scores becomes greater.  

You would be right if you thought there would be a correlation between bad scores and low income, here is how that data looks. 

Coronavirus Stressors

With half of the planet still on lockdown due to the Coronavirus breakouts, its obvious to see that will have an impact on consumer debt levels and credit scores. 

First off, over 2 million people have filed for mortgage forbearance so far, which allows them to delay mortgage payments- keep in mind this doesn’t stop the lender from reporting late payments to the credit bureaus. That means 2 million people will get a fresh negative ding on their credit report affecting them upwards of -100 points as this is a mortgage debt. 

A more general chart to look at here is the overall arrangements for bad debts at the major US banks has jumped up to numbers we saw in the Great Financial Crisis (GFC 2009). 

  • Entrata Inc. (digital property-management company pulls data from more than 20,000 apartment communities) showed a 13% increase in credit-card usage in April- compared to previous 3 months
  • Zego Inc (company that processes more than 2 million rent payments each month) reported a 30% increase in credit-card usage compared to March.
 
We will be keeping our eyes on any updates to the Consumer Debt Service as percent of disposable personal income (CDSP) numbers from the Fed which haven’t been updated/adjusted.

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