(NewsNation) — The national average credit score among Americans is on the decline, according to new data from scoring company FICO.

The average FICO score has decreased by two points since 2024, lowering the national average to 715, according to the company’s recent report.

While a two-point drop may not sound like much, financial experts have warned it marks the biggest drop since the Great Recession and that it could spell economic trouble for the middle class.

“The middle class has been crushed; it’s just too much debt on an American consumer,” Grant Cardone, CEO of investment firm Cardone Capital, told NewsNation. “I’ve been harping on this for now, I don’t know, two years, maybe three. We’ve been in rolling recessions across consumer in this country.”

FICO scores measure credit risk, and are used by banks to determine whether to lend money to an individual. Scores range from 300 to 850.

Credit card balances are ballooning, with the average utilization at 35.5%, up from 29.6% in 2021, according to FICO’s report. Student loan delinquency is also at a record high, as 6.1 million consumers had a student loan delinquency report added to their credit card file from February to April 2025.

Gen Z consumers are especially feeling the sting, with an average score now of 676. According to FICO, Gen Zers saw an average score decrease of three points, marking the largest year-over-year score drop of any age group since 2020.

“Less than 40% of the people that graduate from college today, if they even graduated, get a job in the field that they studied for,” Cardone said. “This f—ing $1.7 trillion — you can quote me on the bleeping F — this $1.7 trillion, the most inflated single commodity on planet Earth, is college debt.”

That pressure is squeezing the middle class.

“Lenders are looking at these loans a lot harder,” Cardone said.