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Consumer Pulse Study

Consumer behaviors and attitudes about current and future household budgets, spending and debt

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US Q2 2025

  calendar-icon   June 18, 2025

TransUnion’s quarterly survey explores how consumers’ personal finances have changed and what changes they expect in the future. The study measures shifting consumer attitudes and behaviors based on the dynamics of income, debt and identity theft. The analyses and insights give consumers a voice and inform businesses’ decision-making as they seek to create economic opportunity for consumers.

Key Takeaways

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Despite rising pessimism, majority of consumers remain optimistic about future finances

More than half (55%) of American consumers were optimistic about their household finances in the next 12 months, unchanged from Q2 2024 but three percentage points lower than Q1 2025. At the same time, pessimism about future finances rose four percentage points (to 27%) compared to a year ago, five percentage points higher than last quarter and an all-time high since TransUnion started measurement in Q1 2021. Younger generations were more optimistic about their future incomes and finances while Baby Boomers showed the largest shift toward pessimism compared to Q2 2024 (26% a year ago to 36% currently).

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Tariff uncertainty appears to feed credit appetite

Most (87%) Americans reported concern about the impact of current or possible tariffs on their household finances and 41% said they were very concerned. Two-thirds (67%) of consumers said higher prices of products would be the biggest impact of current or potential tariffs to them personally — followed by reduced product availability (44%) and higher interest rates (33%). Of those who were very concerned about tariffs, 37% planned to apply for new credit or refinance existing credit in the next year, a higher rate than the 30% of all others who planned to do the same. Among those who planned to apply for credit, consumers very concerned about tariffs indicated a greater preference for revolving credit. Specifically, they planned to increase available credit on existing cards (29% vs. 19% all others), apply for a personal loan (29% vs.18% all others) and apply for buy now, pay later payment services (23% vs. 17% all others).

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Recession fears reemerge, but inflation concerns reign supreme

Inflation (81%) remained in consumers’ top three financial concerns despite a three-percentage-point, year-over-year decline and quarter-over-quarter flattening. Meanwhile, fear of a recession as a top-three financial concern jumped nine percentage points from last quarter and seven percentage points from Q2 2024 to 52% — its highest level in two years. Consumers remained very concerned about rising prices and reported recently cutting back on spending the most on discretionary purchases (defined in the survey as dining out, travel and entertainment) and subscriptions or memberships.

Financial Health

Household income (HHI), spending and bill payment impacts

Household finances mixed in the face of economic uncertainty

In Q2 2025, Americans reported their household incomes remained consistent from the previous quarter, with 83% reporting income rose or stayed the same in the last three months. Nearly all (90%) expected their incomes to increase or stay the same in the next 12 months. Job security appeared strong as well. Only 34% of consumers reported jobs as a top-three financial concern, down slightly from the previous quarter and Q2 2024.

However, 37% of consumers reported household finances were worse than planned in Q2 2025. This was significantly higher (six percentage points) than the previous quarter but lower (39%) than a year ago. Optimism about household finances for the next 12 months appeared to be clouded by inflation. Most (81%) reported it as one of their top three financial concerns despite the Consumer Price Index increasing a modest 0.1% in May 2025 from the previous month and 2.4% over the last year.1 Nearly two-thirds (62%) of US consumers were extremely or very concerned about the current rate of inflation, the same as Q2 2024. Feeding into their inflation fears, 67% of consumers indicated current or potential tariffs could lead to

higher product prices that would impact them personally.Uncertainty is the watchword as fears of a recession reemerged and jumped to a top-three financial concern for 52% of consumers, rising nine percentage points over Q1 2025 to the highest point in two years. To illustrate, when asked to identify their top financial concern for the next 12 months, respondent comments noted the increase in inflation due to tariffs and real possibility of a recession affecting jobs.

1 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index Summary

Americans continue to spend cautiously in response to financial anxiety

Just over half (52%) of consumers in Q2 2025 indicated they reduced discretionary spending in the last three months, a four-percentage-point increase over Q1 and the biggest spending change compared to other categories. At the same time, 23% indicated they increased emergency savings, two percentage points higher than the previous quarter. Over the next three months, 44% planned to reduce discretionary spending, 37% retail spending and 35% large purchases. At the same time, 41% planned to devote more budget to paying bills, more than the 12% who said they’d decrease. Some specific consumer segments said they’d increase discretionary spending more than decrease it. The top four were: those with children at home (26 percentage points more), incomes greater than $100K a year (23 percentage points more) full-time employment (22 percentage points more) and Millennials (20 percentage points more).

Younger generations’ financial confidence drives spending

Both Gen Z (67%) and Millennial (64%) optimism about finances in the next 12 months far exceeded that of the overall population (55%), Gen X (52%) and Baby Boomers (43%). Gen Z and Millennial financial outlooks diverged sharply from Gen X and especially Baby Boomers. Across nearly every key financial metric, including future income expectations, planned household budgets and finances keeping up with inflation, younger generations outpaced older generations by 10 percentage points or more.

Not surprisingly, more younger generation respondents (Millennials in particular) planned to increase spending in the next three months. Compared to all surveyed, 36% of Millennials planned to increase retail shopping, 10 percentage points higher than overall; 35% discretionary spending, 12 percentage points higher than overall; and 31% large purchases, 11 percentage points higher than overall.

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Financial Inclusion

Attitudes and plans for economic participation

Interest rate concern eases but is still top of mind

Interest rates ranked third as a top-three financial concern (behind inflation and recession) for 42% of Americans in Q2 2025, a decline from 46% a year ago. Aligned with this drop, the percentage of consumers who said rising interest rates highly or moderately impacted their plans to apply for credit in the next 12 months fell to 63% from 65% in Q2 2024.

Credit appetite rises

Plans to seek new credit or refinance existing credit in the next year rose to 33%, up from 30% in Q1 2025 and 31% a year ago. Interest was particularly strong among Gen Z and Millennials as 50% each reported plans to do so in the coming year, up from 47% last year for Gen Z and 42% for Millennials. While 62% of Millennials felt they have sufficient access to credit, just 56% of Gen Z felt the same, the lowest of all generations surveyed.

Consumers appeared to bolster their spending capacities. Those who said they planned to seek credit reported they’d apply for new credit cards (57%), increase available credit on existing cards (24%) and apply for new personal loans (23%).

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Identity Protection

Identity risks and usage

More than half of Americans at risk of identity fraud

For the first time in two years, more than half of Americans were aware they were targeted with fraud in the last three months. This quarter, 42% reported they were targeted with an email, online, phone call or text messaging fraud scheme but didn’t fall victim (a three-percentage-point increase from Q1), while another 9% said they were targeted and fell victim. In addition, almost a third (31%) of Americans said they were notified details about their identities and/or online accounts were stolen in a data breach — up from 27% a year ago.

Fraud-enabling scams most frequently used to target consumers

Scams designed to enable identity-based fraud — getting consumers to share sensitive information, unknowingly grant access to online accounts or send money to criminals — were the leading reported fraud schemes in Q2 2025. Phishing (fraudulent emails, websites, social posts, QR codes, etc. meant to steal data) and smishing (fraudulent text messages meant to trick someone into revealing data) were reported by 46% of those who said they were targeted — followed by vishing (fraudulent phone calls meant to trick someone into revealing data) at 34%.

Consumers’ reactions mixed to hearing their identities were compromised in a data breach

Consumers said identity theft (58%) was overwhelmingly the cyber threat of most concern. However, when notified their information was exposed in a data breach in the last three months, just 44% (the highest percentage) said they checked the affected account for unauthorized activity and only 40% changed the password on the affected account. Around one-third took steps to protect themselves by changing passwords on unaffected accounts (34%) and checking their credit reports for unauthorized trades like credit cards, auto loans and personal loans (35%).

Consumers slow to adopt proactive cybersecurity threat protections

Consumers appeared to be mostly reactive to cybersecurity concerns. While 45% reported changing passwords and 42% checked their credit reports in the last 60 days in response to cybersecurity concerns, just 14% said they enrolled in identity monitoring, 11% initiated credit freezes and 10% purchased identity theft/security protection. More than a quarter (27%) reported taking no action and of those, 47% said they did nothing because they were unsure what action to take.

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Research Methodology

This online survey of 2,998 adults was conducted May 1–12, 2025 by TransUnion in partnership with third-party research provider Dynata. Adults 18 years of age and older residing in the United States were surveyed using an online research panel method across a combination of desktop, mobile and tablet devices. Survey questions were administered in English. All states were represented in the survey responses. To ensure general population sample representativeness across United States resident demographics, the survey included quotas to balance responses to the census statistics on the dimensions of age, gender, household income, race and region. Generations were defined in this research as follows: Gen Z, 18–28 years old; Millennials, 29–44; Gen X, 45–60; and Baby Boomers, age 61 and above. These research results are unweighted and statistically significant at a 95% confidence level within ±1.8 percentage points based on calculated error margin. Please note some chart percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding or multiple answers being accepted.

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Disclaimer: The information posted here was accurate at the time it was initially published. We do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided. The information contained here is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. You should consult your own attorney or financial adviser regarding your particular situation. For complete details of any product mentioned, visit transunion.com. This site is governed by the TransUnion privacy policy located here.