America's Riskiest Borrowers Are Nursing a Financial Hangover

WSJ Your Money Briefing

The Wall Street Journal

News, Business News

3.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2024, people fell behind on credit card bills and car payments more often than at any point since the Great Recession. Now, they’re hurting. Wall Street Journal personal finance reporter Katherine Hamilton joins host J.R. Whalen to discuss what borrowers need to know. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Curry's Business.
0:03.1	Whether you run a bustling cafe, a busy office or an inspiring classroom,
0:07.2	Curry's Business has the tech for your 2025 business plans.
0:11.0	Upgrade with their January epic deals with up to 30% off hundreds of products,
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0:19.4	Shop at business.curries.co.com.
0:21.2	Visit your local hub or call their UK-based specialist business center.
0:26.1	Curry's Business, powering your business in 2025.
0:32.5	Here's your money briefing from Monday, January 6th.
0:35.7	I'm J.R. Waylon for the Wall Street Journal.
0:41.2	Stimulus checks along with suspended mortgage and student loan payments during the pandemic
0:45.6	allowed many Americans to build up their savings accounts and their credit scores. But since then,
0:51.8	reality has set back in. As those pandemic aides went away, a lot of people started feeling like they weren't able to save as much,
1:00.0	and they also weren't able to keep up with their debts.
1:04.0	So especially for people who took on extra loans in 2021, when they were doing better financially,
1:10.0	that really came back to bite them in the butt
1:13.1	because they were not able to keep up with those new debts that they had taken on.
1:17.8	We'll talk to Wall Street Journal reporter Catherine Hamilton.
1:20.5	After the break. Americans credit scores that skyrocketed during the pandemic are coming back to Earth.
1:46.6	Wall Street Journal, personal finance reporter Catherine Hamilton, joins me.
1:50.6	Catherine, how have average credit scores trended over the past couple of years?
1:54.7	There was a really big jump that we saw during the first three years of the pandemic.
	...

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