America's Riskiest Borrowers Are Nursing a Financial Hangover
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Here's your Money Briefing for Monday, January 6th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. Stimulus checks, along with suspended mortgage and student loan payments during the pandemic, allowed many Americans to build up their savings accounts and their credit scores. But since then, reality has set back in.
As those pandemic aids went away, a lot of people started feeling like they weren't able to save as much, and they also weren't able to keep up with their debts. So especially for people who took on extra loans in 2021, when they were doing better financially, that really came back to bite them in the butt because they were not able to keep up with those new debts that they had taken on.
We'll talk to Wall Street Journal reporter Katherine Hamilton after the break.
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Americans' credit scores that skyrocketed during the pandemic are coming back to Earth. Wall Street Journal personal finance reporter Catherine Hamilton joins me. Catherine, how have average credit scores trended over the past couple of years?
There was a really big jump that we saw during the first three years of the pandemic. And more recently, that jump in credit score has leveled off. So the average FICO score, which is a traditional credit score measure, jumped from 708 in 2020 to 718 in 2023. So that was a record high 10-point increase. And then this year, it actually ticked down one point, which is the first time it's done that in more than a decade.
but that was a big jump in 2021. Why did it go up so much?
There were a few different factors at play in 2021. A lot of folks were actually doing better financially that year because there was more pandemic aid.
How did pandemic-era stimulus and paused payments lift credit scores?
So the stimulus checks, a lot of people got tax credits that rolled out during the pandemic. And also a lot of people were just spending less during the pandemic because they were staying at home. And so we saw household incomes go up during that time. And as a result, people were able to catch up on their debt and credit scores increased.
How has the economy changed since then? And how has that impacted people's credit profiles?
There were a few different factors. Inflation during 2022 really went up and prices increased. And also interest rates went up and made debt more expensive. And then again, as those pandemic aids went away, a lot of people died. started feeling like they weren't able to save as much and they also weren't able to keep up with their debts. So especially for people who took on extra loans in 2021 when they were doing better financially, that really came back to bite them in the butt because they were not able to keep up with those new debts that they had taken on.
Which groups are being affected by this the most?
The groups most affected, generally speaking, are those with lower credit scores who are known as non-prime credit borrowers, people generally who are lower income, who maybe felt that rise in income more in 2021 and felt like they were doing a lot better, who are now coming back to earth.
You and our colleague David Uberti spoke with financial professionals who help people manage their debt. What did they tell you was going on?
A lot of folks who work in credit counseling and credit consolidation told us that they are getting a lot more clients now who are looking for help just keeping up with their debts and managing them. There's also a lot of companies like banks and lenders who are seeing it in their bottom line.
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