2025 FinHealth Spend Report Shows the Price of Participation in America’s Financial System Hit $455 Billion in 2024, with Financially Vulnerable Bearing the Heaviest Burden
Fees and interest surged by nearly $100B over two years as student loans resumed and credit card debt grew, costing Financially Vulnerable households 17 times more of their income than Financially Healthy households.
FinHealth Spend 2025: The Cost of Financial Services For American Households
Financial Health Network research reveals that Americans spent $455 billion in financial services fees and interest in 2024 as credit costs, student loans, and deep inequities strain households.
FinHealth Standards for Spending Management Products: Checking Accounts and Credit Cards
Discover the first evidence-based standards for designing checking accounts and credit cards that support customer financial health.
Financial Health Solutions: Credit Builder Loans and Rent Reporting
A study with Self examines the potential of two credit-building tools for establishing or improving credit scores.
Pulse Points: Disparities in Credit Scores and Length of Credit History
How is credit history related to race and ethnicity, and what steps can financial service providers take to address credit health inequities?
Strategies To Encourage Credit Score Monitoring Among Young People
A significant portion of young adults don’t regularly check their credit scores, but financial institutions can help turn this trend around.
Real-Time Payments Provide A Path To Fewer Overdrafts
When the Federal Reserve announced earlier this summer the launch of FedNow, a new service to enable instant payments for American households and businesses, some critics argued that the fanfare was overblown. After all, The Clearing House had launched the nation’s first instant payment system in 2017, and even that was decades behind other developed economies.
A return to “normal” debt – financially vulnerable left behind
The economy has been through the wringer for the past few years. Skyrocketing inflation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a series of rapid rate rises that still may not have reached an end.
Americans paid 14% more for financial services last year: Report
Consumers spent $347 billion on interest and fees in 2022, up from $304 billion the previous year, according to a report from Financial Health Network, a nonprofit organization that focuses on improving Americans' financial outcomes.