Personal Loan Balances Hit a Record $281 Billion

The numbers

TransUnion’s Credit Industry Insights Report for the second quarter of 2026, released August 6, shows unsecured personal loans growing faster than most other kinds of consumer credit. Here are the headline figures, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

For comparison, TransUnion counted $1.14 trillion in bank credit card balances, up 4.4% in a year. Personal loan balances are growing roughly twice as fast.

Why personal loans are growing

More borrowers, especially below prime

The number of borrowers rose about 8% in a year, and originations climbed 19.5% year over year. TransUnion reported 6.4 million new personal loans in the first quarter of 2026, up from 5.4 million a year earlier. (Origination data trail balances by one quarter.) Subprime originations rose about 29%, the fastest of any risk tier, while super-prime originations rose about 9%.

Josh Turnbull, TransUnion’s senior vice president and consumer lending business leader, put it this way: lenders are “reaching more consumers than ever, particularly at the subprime end,” but “doing it with smaller loan sizes and tighter underwriting.”

Smaller loans

That shows up in the averages. Debt per borrower barely moved, from $11,676 to $11,694, and the average balance per loan slipped from $8,524 to $8,437. Many of the new loans are smaller, which is where the $200–$5,000 range fits.

Card debt is expensive

Credit cards charged an average 22.36% APR on balances that paid interest in August 2026, according to the Federal Reserve, against 11.90% for a 24-month personal loan at a bank. A fixed-rate loan with a set payoff date is an attractive way for people with good credit to pay down card balances. See our guide on when consolidation saves money.

How personal loans fit into the bigger picture

Personal loans are still a small slice of what Americans owe. TransUnion counted $18.6 trillion in total consumer balances in Q2 2026, up 2.8% in a year, spread across 261.7 million consumers with at least one balance. Unsecured personal loans make up about 1.5% of that total.

What stands out is the pace. Total balances grew 2.8% and bank card balances 4.4%, while personal loan balances grew 9.6%. The New York Fed’s separate count shows the same direction for cards: balances rose $54 billion over the year to $1.263 trillion.

For borrowers, faster growth has a practical upside: more lenders compete for small loans, which makes it easier to compare offers. It also means more advertising, so it pays to check every lender’s license and avoid anyone asking for money upfront. Our loan scam guide lists the warning signs.

Is personal loan risk rising?

The share of borrowers 60 or more days behind rose from 3.37% to 3.81%. That sounds worrying, but TransUnion says it mostly reflects who is borrowing. In Turnbull’s words, delinquency is rising per borrower “simply because more non-prime consumers are entering the market,” while “on a balance-weighted basis, risk has actually held flat.”

What it means if you’re borrowing

• Offers are easier to find than a few years ago, including for fair credit, but rates vary widely. Lenders’ best offers ranged from about 12% APR for scores of 800 or higher to about 29% for scores under 580 in LendingTree’s Q4 2025 data. See rates by credit score.
• Smaller loans can still be costly. Fees take a bigger bite out of a small loan, so compare the APR, not just the interest rate. Our origination fee guide shows how.
• Only borrow what you can repay. Missing payments brings late fees and can hurt your credit for years. Check the monthly payment with our calculators before you apply.

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