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Consumer Pulse Wave 12

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TransUnion's Wave 12 US Consumer Pulse Study Released

We’ve just released the latest TransUnion US Consumer Pulse Study — a quarterly survey exploring how consumers’ personal finances have changed and what changes they expect in the future. Here are the key takeaways:  

  • COVID-19 continues to financially impact 52% of Americans, which is the lowest level since this study started in March, and a 5-point improvement since the end of July. However, this improvement is not uniform, with some segments continuing to report elevated hardship. Of note, Hispanic consumers (68%) and Americans with children at home (65%) continue to experience high levels of financial impact. From an industry perspective, more of those who work in real estate and construction (74%), leisure and hospitality (70%), and IT and data processing (67%) report being financially impacted.
  • Impacted consumers continue to delay major purchases and adjust their household budgets by cutting discretionary spending (+4 pp to 54%), increasing use of available credit (+3 pp to 21%) and tapping retirement savings (+4 pp to 17%). Impacted consumers are also increasingly planning to turn to a variety of credit products to help pay bills and loans, and many state they will rely more on borrowing from friends and family (+5 pp to 27%).
  • Eighty-six percent of parents affected by COVID-19–related changes to schools, colleges and childcare facilities have had to modify their household budgets. Almost a quarter (24%) state they have lost income due to taking on additional childcare responsibilities.