VantageScore President and CEO Silvio Tavares joined Sharon Epperson on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” to discuss the December 2024 VantageScore CreditGauge, which reveals that for higher earners – people earning more than $150,000 a year – the delinquency rate has more than doubled since January 2023. 

“We have seen significant increases in service costs like home insurance and auto insurance, and that is hitting the high-income consumers harder than most. That’s what’s driving that delinquency rate.”

Tavares also highlighted the cautious nature of today’s consumer.

Consumers are being cautious with credit. While credit card balances are about 2.9% higher than a year ago, that’s still in line with the rise in inflation. Consumers aren’t at their limit, as credit utilization decreased on a year-over-year basis. It was down about a full percentage point to about 51.6%. If the credit utilization were at 100%, that would mean the consumer is maxed out, but they weren’t. Consumers have a lot of available credit, but they choose not to use it.

CreditGauge is VantageScore’s monthly analysis of U.S. consumer credit health. Catch up on the latest CreditGauge insights here.

Watch the interview here: