Data through: Q2 2026 · updated Aug 26 · Updates: Quarterly
↓ 0.1 pp YoY
Historical context: Currently in the 27th percentile of all historical readings.
What this means right now: Consumer delinquency is moderate — between 2.5% and 3.5%. This is the most common state for the series: about 2 quarters in every 5 since 1987 (68 of the 158). A recession was under way or began within 18 months in only 9 of those 68.
Consumer Loan Delinquency Rate — the last 8 quarters
Every quarter's reading, with the band the heatmap gives it. The chart above shows the same series in full.
Quarter
Value
Band
Q2 2026
2.6%
Within normal range
Q1 2026
2.6%
Within normal range
Q4 2025
2.6%
Within normal range
Q3 2025
2.7%
Within normal range
Q2 2025
2.8%
Within normal range
Q1 2025
2.8%
Within normal range
Quarter-end readings of the same series as the chart. Values are the current record, not point-in-time: a month that has since been revised shows its revised value.
What is the Consumer Delinquency?
The consumer loan delinquency rate is the share of consumer loans at banks — credit cards, car loans, personal loans and other installment credit — on which payments are 30 or more days late. It is a broad measure of household financial stress. The credit card rate the site also tracks is one of its two parts.
Because it pools several kinds of loan, it moves less than any one of them and gives a fuller picture of how households are coping. Since 1987 it has stayed between 1.52% and 4.85%, while the card rate alone has ranged from 1.53% to 6.77%. The rate has climbed to 3.5% or above four times (1989, 1996, 2000 and 2008). In 3 of those a recession was under way or began within 18 months; 1996 was the exception.
How We Color-Code the Consumer Delinquency
Our heatmap colors this indicator against historically significant thresholds:
Below 1.5%
Very low — below 1.5%, lower than the series has ever been (its low was 1.52% in Q3 2021)
1.5% – 2.5%
Low — 1.5% to 2.5%; households keeping up on every kind of loan
2.5% – 3.5%
Moderate — 2.5% to 3.5%, the band around the series' typical level of about 3%
3.5% – 5.0%
Elevated — 3.5% to 5%, about 3 in 10 of all quarters (49 of 158), the last of them in 2010
Above 5.0%
High — above 5%, higher than the series has ever been (its peak is 4.85% in Q2 2009)
Historical Extremes — What Happened Next?
When this indicator reaches extreme levels, history shows consistent patterns:
Q2 2009Financial Crisis Peak
4.8%
The highest reading since the series began in 1987 (the record stands at 4.85%, Q2 2009). With unemployment climbing toward its October 2009 peak of 10.0%, households fell behind on every kind of loan at once.
Q3 2021Stimulus-Era Low
1.5%
The lowest reading since the series began in 1987 (the record low stands at 1.52%, Q3 2021): stimulus checks and payment pauses briefly took the pressure off across every kind of loan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why track the broad rate when card delinquency has its own page?
One kind of loan can go bad for its own reasons — car-loan delinquency rose partly because car prices jumped during COVID. When the broad rate rises, households are falling behind across the board, which is a more serious sign. How widely the trouble spreads matters as much as how deep it goes.
How does consumer delinquency differ across income levels?
Lower-income borrowers fall behind far more often than higher-income ones at every point in the cycle, and the published rate is the average of all of them. A sharp rise usually means lower-income households, with the thinnest cushions, have been hit first. When it spreads up the income ladder, the trouble has become general.
What consumer loan delinquency rate has historically triggered a tightening of bank lending standards?
As the rate climbs past about 2.5–3%, banks have tended to tighten: asking for higher credit scores, lending less against the same collateral and pulling back on unsecured loans. Less new credit means less spending, and less spending means more households falling behind. That loop is one of the main ways financial strain turns into an economic downturn.
How does consumer loan delinquency at commercial banks differ from delinquency across all lenders?
This series covers loans at commercial banks only, whose borrowers tend to have better credit. Credit unions, finance companies and other non-bank lenders, which serve more borrowers with weak credit, are left out. So the rate here probably understates the stress across all lenders. It is most useful for direction — whether things are getting better or worse — rather than as a measure of the whole market.
Does consumer loan delinquency lead or lag unemployment?
You might expect it to lag: people who lose a job usually run down savings and cut back before they miss a payment, especially on a mortgage or car loan. Yet at the peaks, the record since 1987 runs the other way. In each of the 4 recessions it covers since 1987, delinquency peaked before unemployment did. It peaked in Q2 1991 (4.21%) while unemployment peaked in June 1992 (7.8%); in Q3 2001 (3.72%) against June 2003 (6.3%); in Q2 2009 (4.85%) against October 2009 (10.0%); and in Q1 2020 (2.46%) against April 2020 (14.8%). Each peak is the highest reading from 12 months before the recession began to 24 months after it ended.