Gen Z Is Falling Deeper Into Debt
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Here's your Money Briefing for Thursday, May 9th. I'm J.R. Whalen for The Wall Street Journal. Many young Americans hoping to make it on their own as they enter the workforce are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. They're starting out with more credit card debt than generations before them.
During the pandemic, many people got wealthier. Stimulus checks and pauses in payments, like student loan payments and some rent payments, really helped people to save up money. But for Gen Z, many of those things have reversed, like student loan payments. And this period of high inflation that we've been seeing over the past two years have really made it harder for those who are trying to establish themselves post-graduation into adult life.
We'll run the numbers with our personal finance reporter, Oyen Adedoyen, after the break.
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Gen Z is sinking deeper into debt. Wall Street Journal reporter Oyin Adedoyin joins me. Oyin, how bad has it gotten?
Data shows that Gen Z has more credit card debt than prior generations at the same age. We got some exclusive data from a study by TransUnion, a credit reporting agency, that looked at the numbers from those who were 22 to 24 years old last year compared to those who were the same age in 2013. What they found is that Gen Z were carrying an average of around $2,834 in credit card debt compared to those 10 years ago who were carrying about $2,248 in credit card debt. And that's inflation adjusted.
But Gen Z and other age groups were able to build up cash savings as a result of pandemic-era stimulus. How did that lead them to racking up so much credit card debt?
During the pandemic, many people got wealthier. Pandemic stimulus checks and pauses like student loan payments and some rent payments really helped people to save up money. But for Gen Z, many of those things have reversed, like student loan payments, for example, have returned. And this period of high inflation that we've been seeing over the past two years have really made it harder for those who are trying to establish themselves post-graduation into adult life.
How has their use of credit cards gotten them this far into debt?
During the pandemic, like we said, people saw a boost in wealth. That meant that in 2021, credit card companies saw this and began loosening their qualifications for who could get credit cards. So many people with lower credit scores, for instance, or who had never had credit before started to obtain credit cards.
And that includes, of course, Gen Z. So it got a lot easier for them to get cards.
It got a lot easier. And even according to the TransUnion survey, Gen Z now are more likely to have at least one credit card than those who were 22 to 24 10 years ago.
How did their credit scores work into this?
How did pandemic stimulus and paused payments affect Gen Z’s finances?
Credit scores boosted as well during the pandemic, but since then, credit scores have dropped. The drop has been most drastic for millennials, with credit scores between 660 and 719. Those scores have fallen by 26 points.
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