The FICO Inc. has provided figures which show that almost 43.4 million people almost 26%, have a credit score of 599 or below which makes them not suitable for recieving loans, credit cards, mortgages or auto loans as banks are now more than ever extremely picky in their candidates.

One of the many reasons for the slow economic recovery is the fact that many customers rely on debt to to fuel their recent spending. One mortgage broker from Melbourne stated that he has lots of business but yet is struggling to stay open, he gets paid for not giving loan applications but for closing. The figures reported by FICO is from the analysis of consumer credit reports as of April of this year. This shows an increase of almost 2.4 million people being categorized in the lowest of credit scored for the last 2 years.

According to chief researcher at FICO Minneapolis Andrew Jennings before the recession the scores which ranged from 300-850 were not as volatile. According to their historical data 25.5 million people or 15% of their 170 million customers fell below the 599 mark. Currently there are millions of people who are out of work and who are underemployed so the rate of people falling to lower credit rates will increase and would take years for them to build back a good credit score no matter what their score was before. However their are those who due to the recession have drastically cut down spending and paid off debts which increased the number of people with a score of 800 and above.