Free Republic

Consumers have been increasingly relying on credit cards to make ends meet, and it may be finally catching up with them. The national average credit score, which has steadily increased over the last decade, fell to 717 from a high of 718 in the beginning of 2023, according to a report from FICO, developer of one of the scores most widely used by lenders. FICO scores range between 300 and 850... “It’s a notable milestone,” said Ethan Dornhelm, FICO’s vice president of scores and predictive analytics. “This is the first time in well over a decade that the score went...

As Americans deal with stubborn inflation, they’re increasingly turning to credit cards to make ends meet. In fact, credit card originations rose 0.16% month-to-month in August, according to the latest data from VantageScore. And the average credit card balance jumped 11.1% year-over-year to reach $6,082. "In August, lenders tightened access to credit across most products and consumers continued to remain cautious about adding to their debt levels," Susan Fahy, the executive vice president and chief digital officer at VantageScore, said in a statement. "The data shows that over the summer many U.S. consumers began to feel the strain of rising...