The average FICO Score in the United States held at 714, flat since October 2025 and down one point from a year earlier, FICO reported. The same report found that about 3.2 million consumers with a payment due had a recent student-loan delinquency, and that their scores fell by an average of 38 points over the year. The national number barely moved, while one group of borrowers fell sharply.
What does the 714 cover?
The figure comes from the Fall ’26 edition of the FICO Score Credit Insights Report, published on August 25, 2026, from Bozeman, Montana. Its score data runs from October 2025 to April 2026, so it describes the spring, not the fall.
It remains FICO’s most recent report on the national average. The company describes the stable average as carrying “echoes of the K-shaped economy,” meaning that some households are improving while others fall behind.
The report also draws on a consumer survey run for FICO by Harris Poll on July 20-22, 2026. It sampled 2,078 U.S. adults, with a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points.
Who are the borrowers behind the 38-point drop?
FICO says the 3.2 million consumers had a payment due and a recent student-loan delinquency. Their average year-over-year decline was 38 points. That is an average for this group alone, not a cap and not a figure for every student-loan borrower.
For anyone who missed a student-loan payment and watched a score fall, the open question is how far back it can come. The report measures the drop, not the recovery. Federal consumer guidance is more specific about how long a late payment stays on a file.
What changed this year: Social Security and Medicare change every year, and nobody sends you a memo. The Retirement Money Brief breaks down what changed and what to do.
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How long does a missed payment stay on a credit report?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says a credit reporting company generally can report most negative information for seven years. Lawsuits and judgments can stay for seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out, whichever is longer. Bankruptcies can stay up to ten years.
The CFPB page does not single out student loans. Its advice on repair is narrow: a credit report can be fixed free of charge only when it contains errors, and the agency warns against paying fees to “repair” accurate negative information.
The Federal Trade Commission says only one website is authorized to fill orders for free reports from the three nationwide credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. That site is AnnualCreditReport.com. The FTC says the bureaus have extended a program that allows weekly free checks there.
Which borrowers are under the most pressure?
Ethan Dornhelm, FICO’s head of scores analytics, called affordability “the defining story” of the report. He said resilience “isn’t being tested equally, with lower-scoring and thin-file borrowers facing the greatest pressure.”
The numbers point the same way. Mortgage balances for borrowers with scores below 620 have grown 43% since April 2019, and auto balances for the lowest-scoring borrowers are up 36%. Both outpaced the 30% inflation rate over that stretch, while higher-scoring borrowers tracked closer to inflation.
The average monthly payment for a first-time homebuyer reached $2,563, up 57% since 2019, FICO says. That increase has outpaced inflation since rates began rising in 2022. At the same time, early-stage mortgage delinquency eased from 1.42% to 1.35% year over year, and auto 30-day delinquency improved by five basis points to 2.6%.
Late-stage trouble is concentrated at the bottom. FICO says 90-day-plus delinquency in mortgages and autos rose only in the lowest score bands and stayed flat across higher ranges, while bankcard and personal loan delinquency was largely unchanged.
Who is gaining, and who is guessing?
Gen Z and Millennials posted the largest score gains since before the pandemic, up 17 and 10 points. Consumers who made their payments gained 6 points, and those with no recent delinquency gained 16, FICO says. A missed student-loan payment therefore sits against a backdrop in which most borrowers are holding or gaining.
Buy-now-pay-later use is part of the picture. FICO’s survey found 66% of Gen Z and 57% of Millennials use it, against 32% of Gen X and 16% of Baby Boomers. Overall, 41% of consumers currently use it.
Understanding lags engagement. Fifty-six percent of consumers checked their score, up from 49% in 2024, but 27% believe checking a score lowers it, and 65% wrongly believe income factors into a score or are unsure. “Consumers are more engaged with their credit than ever, but engagement alone doesn’t guarantee understanding,” said Jenelle Dito, a FICO vice president for consumer empowerment programs and partnerships.
Interest is high. In the survey, 84% said maintaining or improving their score is a priority for 2027, and 89% took at least one financial health step in the past year. Seventy-two percent check their score multiple times a year or more.
The survey also found that 20% of consumers made less than the minimum payment or skipped a payment on a card or loan in the past year. That puts the 3.2 million delinquent student-loan borrowers inside a larger group of households that have already missed a bill.
Missed a student-loan payment and now dealing with collectors?
A delinquency can start a run of calls, letters and dates, and a 38-point drop is only the first cost. Missing a response window on a collector’s letter can add a second.
The Bank Account & Debt Protection Kit includes the debt-validation steps for making a collector prove a debt, plus a debt inventory, call log and deadline tracker. The steps are written for readers who need to answer a collector, not for credit repair.
The tracker keeps each account, each call and each date in one place, so the file is ready if a dispute or a bureau error comes up.
Get the debt inventory, call log and deadline tracker →
More Financial Reading
- 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
- 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
- 15 Ways Retirees Are Tapping a Record $14.9 Trillion in Home Equity
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
