Late-Stage Delinquencies Rising Modestly as K-Shaped Credit Economy Persists Average Balances Climb, But Utilization Stays Broadly Stable Personal Loan and CreditLate-Stage Delinquencies Rising Modestly as K-Shaped Credit Economy Persists Average Balances Climb, But Utilization Stays Broadly Stable Personal Loan and Credit

VantageScore CreditGauge™ November 2025: Holiday Spending Drives Credit Card Balance Growth

  • Late-Stage Delinquencies Rising Modestly as K-Shaped Credit Economy Persists
  • Average Balances Climb, But Utilization Stays Broadly Stable
  • Personal Loan and Credit Card Originations Rise Year-Over-Year as Consumers Seek Holiday Liquidity

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Average Credit Card balances grew year-over-year as holiday shopping stimulated consumer spending, according to the latest edition of CreditGauge™ from VantageScore. Late-stage delinquencies increased from the prior year, suggesting persistent repayment pressure among a subset of borrowers. Personal Loan and Credit Card originations rose by +0.56% and +0.34% year-over-year, respectively. The average VantageScore 4.0 credit score remained stable at 701.

“Average credit balances grew in November compared to the previous year, while Personal Loan and Credit Card originations also increased year-over-year — suggesting that more consumers are accessing additional liquidity in comparison to last year’s holiday season,” said Susan Fahy, EVP and Chief Digital Officer at VantageScore. “Many consumers entered the 2025 festive season with tighter household budgets, likely due to a combination of a softer labor market and persistently higher prices, among other factors.”

Watch CreditGauge LIVE for additional key insights from the November 2025 edition of CreditGauge that include:

LATE-STAGE DELINQUENCIES RISING MODESTLY AS K-SHAPED CREDIT ECONOMY PERSISTS: Late-stage delinquencies, or 90–119 Days Past Due (DPD), rose modestly to 0.24%, representing a 30% increase on a relative year-over-year basis. Month-over-month, early-stage delinquencies edged up only slightly (+0.03%) while mid-stage delinquencies remained flat. The ongoing upward trend in late-stage consumer delinquencies likely indicates a persistent repayment strain among a subset of borrowers that continues to bifurcate the U.S. consumer economy.

AVERAGE BALANCES CLIMB, BUT UTILIZATION STAYS BROADLY STABLE: In November 2025, the average balance increased to $106,000, a $77 (+0.07%) rise from October – a new post-pandemic high. Compared to November 2024, balances also grew by $1,459 (+1.4%), demonstrating steady year-over-year growth. Meanwhile, the balance-to-loan ratio slightly declined to 50.80%, reflecting stable utilization. Despite rising balances and early holiday shopping, consumers are showing discipline in their use of credit.

PERSONAL LOAN, CREDIT CARD ORIGINATIONS RISE YEAR-OVER-YEAR AS CONSUMERS SEEK LIQUIDITY: Year-over-year, the most significant increases in originations were in Personal Loans (+0.56%) and Credit Cards (+0.34%), while Mortgages (+0.02%) only edged up slightly and Auto Loans declined (-0.12%). Household budgets were likely tighter entering the 2025 holiday season than last year, and as a result, consumers appeared to seek increased short-term liquidity.

Follow VantageScore on LinkedIn and YouTube to watch CreditGauge LIVE, a monthly video series featuring our latest insights on consumer credit data and analysis. 

CreditGauge is a monthly analysis highlighting the overall health of U.S. consumer credit. To download this month’s full CreditGauge report, visit the VantageScore website.

About VantageScore CreditGauge™
CreditGauge is provided both as a monthly analysis to industry stakeholders as well as through a series of interactive tools at VantageScore.com, which also includes Inclusion360®, RiskRatio™ and MarketGain™. Stakeholders can use the tools to execute additional queries on credit metrics and compare current levels to a pre-pandemic timeframe, starting with January 2020. CreditGauge solely represents the views and analysis of VantageScore and does not necessarily reflect or represent the views of the Nationwide Consumer Reporting Agencies (NCRAs) – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. 

About VantageScore®
VantageScore is the fastest-growing credit scoring company in the U.S., and is known for the industry’s most innovative, predictive and inclusive credit score models. In 2024, usage of VantageScore increased by 55% to hit 42 billion credit scores. More than 3,700 institutions, including nine of the top 10 U.S. banks, use VantageScore credit scores and digital tools to provide consumer credit products or generate greater insights into consumer behavior. The VantageScore 4.0 credit scoring model scores 33 million more people than traditional models. With the FHFA allowing the immediate use of VantageScore 4.0 for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranteed mortgages, the company is also ushering in a new era for mortgage lending.

VantageScore is an independent joint venture company owned by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.  

Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vantagescore-creditgauge-november-2025-holiday-spending-drives-credit-card-balance-growth-302646653.html

SOURCE VantageScore

Market Opportunity
Sidekick Logo
Sidekick Price(K)
$0.005602
$0.005602$0.005602
-2.31%
USD
Sidekick (K) Live Price Chart
Disclaimer: The articles reposted on this site are sourced from public platforms and are provided for informational purposes only. They do not necessarily reflect the views of MEXC. All rights remain with the original authors. If you believe any content infringes on third-party rights, please contact service@support.mexc.com for removal. MEXC makes no guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the content and is not responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided. The content does not constitute financial, legal, or other professional advice, nor should it be considered a recommendation or endorsement by MEXC.

You May Also Like

Building a DEXScreener Clone: A Step-by-Step Guide

Building a DEXScreener Clone: A Step-by-Step Guide

DEX Screener is used by crypto traders who need access to on-chain data like trading volumes, liquidity, and token prices. This information allows them to analyze trends, monitor new listings, and make informed investment decisions. In this tutorial, I will build a DEXScreener clone from scratch, covering everything from the initial design to a functional app. We will use Streamlit, a Python framework for building full-stack apps.
Share
Hackernoon2025/09/18 15:05
Which DOGE? Musk's Cryptic Post Explodes Confusion

Which DOGE? Musk's Cryptic Post Explodes Confusion

A viral chart documenting a sharp decline in U.S. federal employment during President Trump's second term has sparked unexpected confusion in cryptocurrency markets
Share
Coinstats2025/12/20 01:13
Google's AP2 protocol has been released. Does encrypted AI still have a chance?

Google's AP2 protocol has been released. Does encrypted AI still have a chance?

Following the MCP and A2A protocols, the AI Agent market has seen another blockbuster arrival: the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), developed by Google. This will clearly further enhance AI Agents' autonomous multi-tasking capabilities, but the unfortunate reality is that it has little to do with web3AI. Let's take a closer look: What problem does AP2 solve? Simply put, the MCP protocol is like a universal hook, enabling AI agents to connect to various external tools and data sources; A2A is a team collaboration communication protocol that allows multiple AI agents to cooperate with each other to complete complex tasks; AP2 completes the last piece of the puzzle - payment capability. In other words, MCP opens up connectivity, A2A promotes collaboration efficiency, and AP2 achieves value exchange. The arrival of AP2 truly injects "soul" into the autonomous collaboration and task execution of Multi-Agents. Imagine AI Agents connecting Qunar, Meituan, and Didi to complete the booking of flights, hotels, and car rentals, but then getting stuck at the point of "self-payment." What's the point of all that multitasking? So, remember this: AP2 is an extension of MCP+A2A, solving the last mile problem of AI Agent automated execution. What are the technical highlights of AP2? The core innovation of AP2 is the Mandates mechanism, which is divided into real-time authorization mode and delegated authorization mode. Real-time authorization is easy to understand. The AI Agent finds the product and shows it to you. The operation can only be performed after the user signs. Delegated authorization requires the user to set rules in advance, such as only buying the iPhone 17 when the price drops to 5,000. The AI Agent monitors the trigger conditions and executes automatically. The implementation logic is cryptographically signed using Verifiable Credentials (VCs). Users can set complex commission conditions, including price ranges, time limits, and payment method priorities, forming a tamper-proof digital contract. Once signed, the AI Agent executes according to the conditions, with VCs ensuring auditability and security at every step. Of particular note is the "A2A x402" extension, a technical component developed by Google specifically for crypto payments, developed in collaboration with Coinbase and the Ethereum Foundation. This extension enables AI Agents to seamlessly process stablecoins, ETH, and other blockchain assets, supporting native payment scenarios within the Web3 ecosystem. What kind of imagination space can AP2 bring? After analyzing the technical principles, do you think that's it? Yes, in fact, the AP2 is boring when it is disassembled alone. Its real charm lies in connecting and opening up the "MCP+A2A+AP2" technology stack, completely opening up the complete link of AI Agent's autonomous analysis+execution+payment. From now on, AI Agents can open up many application scenarios. For example, AI Agents for stock investment and financial management can help us monitor the market 24/7 and conduct independent transactions. Enterprise procurement AI Agents can automatically replenish and renew without human intervention. AP2's complementary payment capabilities will further expand the penetration of the Agent-to-Agent economy into more scenarios. Google obviously understands that after the technical framework is established, the ecological implementation must be relied upon, so it has brought in more than 60 partners to develop it, almost covering the entire payment and business ecosystem. Interestingly, it also involves major Crypto players such as Ethereum, Coinbase, MetaMask, and Sui. Combined with the current trend of currency and stock integration, the imagination space has been doubled. Is web3 AI really dead? Not entirely. Google's AP2 looks complete, but it only achieves technical compatibility with Crypto payments. It can only be regarded as an extension of the traditional authorization framework and belongs to the category of automated execution. There is a "paradigm" difference between it and the autonomous asset management pursued by pure Crypto native solutions. The Crypto-native solutions under exploration are taking the "decentralized custody + on-chain verification" route, including AI Agent autonomous asset management, AI Agent autonomous transactions (DeFAI), AI Agent digital identity and on-chain reputation system (ERC-8004...), AI Agent on-chain governance DAO framework, AI Agent NPC and digital avatars, and many other interesting and fun directions. Ultimately, once users get used to AI Agent payments in traditional fields, their acceptance of AI Agents autonomously owning digital assets will also increase. And for those scenarios that AP2 cannot reach, such as anonymous transactions, censorship-resistant payments, and decentralized asset management, there will always be a time for crypto-native solutions to show their strength? The two are more likely to be complementary rather than competitive, but to be honest, the key technological advancements behind AI Agents currently all come from web2AI, and web3AI still needs to keep up the good work!
Share
PANews2025/09/18 07:00