Credit monitoring agency Experian this week released its report on the state of Americans' credit. The company examined today's consumer credit behaviors and compared them to those in 2008.
What to watch: Younger people have recently had increasing delinquency issues and are taking on credit cards and borrowing more, but Experian points out that it's older people who are leading some concerning trends.
- While those aged 72 and older have higher credit scores than any other group, "they saw the most significant drop in average credit scores, with a decrease of 40 points (772 in 2008 compared with 732 in 2018).
- "This group also had the most significant increase in credit card balances, up $767 in 2018 to $4,703 (compared with $3,936 in 2008). They also experienced the largest increase in mortgage debt, up $29,602 for a total of $160,735 in 2018 (compared with $131,133 in 2008)."
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