Americans turned to new credit cards and personal loans last year as higher prices burned

The tail end of last year saw a spike in borrowing as rising prices hit consumers hard. New personal loans rose by 24% in the third quarter of 2025 when compared to a year earlier, driven by borrowers with the lowest credit scores, while new credit card accounts spiked by 11.7%, with strong growth from both subprime and superprime consumers, according to new data out Thursday from TransUnion. "People are turning to credit as we continue to see stubbornly high inflation," Michele Raneri, vice president ...