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September 29, 2025

Anna Murray 

Early indications of stress in credit health are showing that U.S. consumers are starting to feel the strain of ongoing inflation and rising interest rates. Most recently, fresh data from Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) was cited.

U.S. consumer spending remains stable, according to retail sales. One lagging measure of credit health is the average FICO score. At 715, the national average score is quite close to all-time highs. The average credit score in the future is undoubtedly subject to numerous hazards.

However, consumers with high incomes are driving American prosperity. Today, about half of all expenditure is attributed to the richest 10%. According to Moody's Analytics, 49.2% of consumer spending in the second quarter came from wealthy households. Since tracking started in 1989, this is the largest share. Both economic resiliency and an increasing reliance on the wealthy are highlighted in the record.