More than two-thirds of Americans expect to receive a tax refund this year, and the majority will use it to pay down their debt.
The average consumer had a credit card balance of about $6,735 in July 2025, according to Experian credit data. While the expected average tax refund of $3,800 won’t pay off all their credit card debt, it will help many Americans who added debt and struggled to make their payments in 2025.
In January 2026, the average credit score for all consumers was 700, according to the most recent VantageScore CreditGauge analysis. That is 0.17 points lower than in December, and 1.6 points lower than the previous year.
“More borrowers are feeling the pressure,” said Atif Mirza, the head of Credit Insights at VantageScore, in an episode of CreditGauge LIVE. “There are two reasons behind this: one is the student loan reporting resumption that’s affecting the credit scores of some borrowers, and also higher delinquency rates across credit types.”
In February, the number of consumers who missed their payments for 30 to 59 days increased across all debt types. In particular, the number of households that are one to two months behind on their mortgage increased by 30.9% from January 2025 to January 2026, CreditGauge reports.
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Check out the latest VantageScore CreditGauge: https://vantagescore.com/insights/creditgauge
