High unemployment and difficulty in securing new credit have helped push consumer credit scores to a new low. In April more than a quarter of Americans, or 43.4 million people, had credit scores below 600 — 10 percent more people than the norm, according to FICO Inc.

"Until the labor market turns around, people will remain unable to pay bills," DeRitis said. "Lowered consumption will only add extra friction to the economy."

On the other hand, the percentage of people with credit scores above 800 climbed to 17.9 percent. The historical average is 13 percent.