The average VantageScore credit score dropped to 700 in December 2025, a point lower than in November and down two points from December 2024, according to the latest CreditGauge report from VantageScore. The score decline is minor, but it reflects more borrowers shifting into lower credit tiers with higher delinquency rates.
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A one-point score move is “relatively meaningless,” says Aleksandar Tomic, the associate dean for strategy, innovation and technology at Boston College.
The greater concern is moving from one credit tier to another, such as shifting from prime to nearprime, says Tomic. A lower credit tier can increase the challenge of obtaining credit and make borrowing more costly with higher rates.
Tier migration occurred for many consumers between December 2023 and December 2025, as the VantageScore subprime tier increased from 18.5% to 19% and the nearprime segment from 17.6% to 17.9%, while the prime tier declined by 1.1%. April Lewis-Parks, director of financial education and communications at Consolidated Credit, says moving into lower credit tiers is a sign of financial distress. “They’re not paying bills on time, and they’re likely using credit cards to make ends meet,” she says. “That’s unsustainable for them and costly to the larger economy.”
Delinquencies also increased, with late-stage delinquencies at 0.27% in December 2025 compared with 0.24% in November and 0.19% a year ago, while early- and mid-stage delinquencies also ticked up compared with the previous month and a year ago. “All delinquencies aren’t the same,” says Lewis-Parks.. “The most serious kind — those over 90 days past due — have been creeping up recently.”
Though consumer credit shows signs of strain, with borrowers moving into lower credit tiers and falling behind on payments, Lewis-Parks says it’s too soon to tell whether we’re seeing short-term pressure or a bigger trend. “Anyone who says it’s definitively one or the other is overconfident,” she says. “It’s impossible to say. But it’s not a stretch to sound the alarm.”
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VantageScore Average Slips, Borrowers Fall Behind on Payments originally appeared on usnews.com