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271 Comments
- dball48, on 06/18/2009, -3/+170Obviously warm climates cause people to have lower credit ratings. Yet another reason why global warming must be stopped.
- kingofinternet, on 06/19/2009, -2/+117lol texas
- megaton, on 06/19/2009, -1/+61I'm getting ***** out of financing for a great deal on a great house because of stupid crediting rules, so please let me offer some advice:
1) DON'T SPEND MORE THAN 30% OF YOUR CREDIT. If you have a $5,000 credit card and you spend $3,000 a month on it AND pay it off to a $0 balance every month, you could STILL be reported as spending $3,000 of your credit, which occupies the hugest 35% of your score, and ***** you royally. (The most royally, in fact, unless you're REGULARLY 90 days late on your credit card payments.) Charge cards are a liability in the credit industry, so if you prefer using a credit card to buffer payments, make sure it's paid in full every couple weeks, to avoid this scenario.
2) CHECK YOUR REPORT *FREQUENTLY* FOR ERRORS. You'd say they don't happen to you, and you'd think they'd be insignificant if they did, but the sad truth is that they are frequent and debilitating. I probably can't buy this house because of a $51 delinquency charge MISTAKE that Capital One made. (And admitted, and have tried to rectify, and very honorably, I might add.) But, "I won't loan you $200,000 because you're delinquent on $50" is about as absurd as they come, but them's the breaks... It takes about 2 months to clear up any issues you may have. (Certain services can expedite the process, but it's like taking birth control after you've gotten her pregnant...)
3) STUDENT LOANS AND OTHER "RESIDUAL LOANS" DON'T COUNT FOR MUCH. If it's a choice between paying the credit card and your student loan, pay your credit card. You won't hurt nearly as much, and you won't piss off anyone but your student loan organization.
4) PAY TO CHECK YOUR FICO SCORE AT LEAST 2 MONTHS PRIOR TO APPLYING FOR A LOAN. The free, annual credit reports everyone is entitled to do NOT tell you your actual credit SCORE. (The number lenders use to judge your risk.) They just illustrate your accounts and liabilities. While that's quite helpful for identifying errors, you'll also want to see what the actual numerical score is that your lender sees. You have to pay for it (about $15 per creditor), but it's worth the knowledge.
5) MOST IMPORTANTLY, REMEMBER THAT YOUR CREDIT SCORE FAVORS THE CREDIT INDUSTRY. You may think the credit industry wants to assure themselves that you are a reliable user of money and credit, and that they can trust you with it. That is not true. They don't make a cent if you're responsible, so finding a balance of risk (how much money you borrow) vs. how much money you cost them (how much money you fail to pay back) is a critical feat. It's ultimately impossible to do, but remember that infractions upon big lenders (banks, etc) are much more heavily graded than infractions upon smaller/less profitable ones (student loan organizations, gov't loans, etc.). - oboshoe, on 06/19/2009, -3/+45"Pretty warm today, I might add."
Well... It is mid June.
Lets talk again in Febuary. - inactive, on 06/19/2009, -4/+45someone superimpose that with the average IQ per state, and who they vote for.
- TalkGibberish, on 06/19/2009, -2/+34Your Credit Score Vs. the United States
AND FIGHT! - michaelrsa, on 06/19/2009, -5/+36Woo! Minnesota in the green!
Suck it Wisconsin! - sk1ll2, on 06/19/2009, -1/+31If global warming is stopped, then the number of pirates present would be astronomical.
- evilesttoast, on 06/19/2009, -7/+36I love how the most libertarian states have the best credit rating. Who woulda thought?
- Bloodwine, on 06/19/2009, -1/+30I haven't checked my FICO score since I bought my house 5 years ago, but I figure it is still good since on the rare occasion I buy something on credit, the sales lady usually humps my leg like a dog in heat after she runs my credit check. I usually let her finish. Sales guys on the other hand get the rolled up newspaper across their noses.
- anarcurt, on 06/19/2009, -1/+29WWJD? Apparently not pay his credit cards.
- pinchduck, on 06/19/2009, -1/+26What is the FICO score of the Federal Government? If it were a person, how would they be rated? I'm guessing that their score would be seriously damaged due to their current debt-to-income ratio.
- marx2k, on 06/19/2009, -2/+26"Damn Messicans forced me to buy an enormous pick up truck and some truck baulz for payments I couldn't realistically afford. Damn Messicans!"
- curtisag, on 06/19/2009, -10/+33The green states are all 85% to 90% white. The Southern states have much higher concentrations of blacks/hispanics who have lower average credit scores and bring down the average. I'm not trying to be racist or start a fight, but it's just a well known demographic fact in the financial industry. They earn less money than whites so it makes sense. Asians have great credit from what I've seen. I'm sure race is not the only reason for the disparity between the states, but it's a big one.
- Dustin00, on 06/19/2009, -6/+29Got my house. Car's been paid off for 7 years. I pay off every credit balance monthly. Don't give a rat's ass about my FICO any more.
- vbullinger, on 06/19/2009, -10/+32As I would've imagined, we Minnesotans (Northerners and Midwesterners in general) are at the top of that list. Put another notch under our belt. So far, we're at the top of these lists:
Best credit scores
Best overall health
Best ACT scores
Nicest place to live
"Oh, but doesn't it get cold there?!?" That mentality keeps out all the idiots. Pretty warm today, I might add. - rblancarte, on 06/19/2009, -1/+20Dude, were #1!!! In your face!!!
Oh wait, that is a bad thing??!!? - omgwtflawl, on 06/19/2009, -2/+20If I may make an analogy, the green states there are living in a decent house, Texas and Nevada are bums drinking wine under an overpass, and the Federal Government is in a straight jacket and a padded cell running around in circles.
- orthodoxDrew, on 06/19/2009, -3/+21it looks a LOT like the red vs blue states to me.
- inactive, on 06/19/2009, -3/+21*insert comment bashing southern states*
- SystemicThought, on 06/19/2009, -5/+23Don't mess with Texas!
And by "mess with", I mean "loan money to".
Thank God I'm from Minnesota. - digitalArtform, on 06/19/2009, -1/+19I was noticing how red the red states were.
- wpmegee, on 06/19/2009, -0/+17Wrong, closing old accounts lowers your Average Age of Accounts which in turn lowers your credit score. You're better off leaving them open unless you're charged an annual fee.
It can also lower your total amount of available credit which will raise your utilization and lower your score. - inactive, on 06/19/2009, -0/+16I always knew those farmers in the upper midwest were the most intelligent.
- treas, on 06/19/2009, -19/+35wow, the southern states are the ones with the most debt, who would've guessed.
- inactive, on 06/19/2009, -1/+17Seems logical enough.
- pinchduck, on 06/19/2009, -5/+18shhhhh, don't let the word get out. We're the dying rust belt full of bible thumpers and gun nuts. That's the party line, friend. If anyone actually figures out how nice it is to live up here, we'll be inundated.
- KUKBAHLAM, on 06/19/2009, -0/+13Texas also has a odd custom of placing value on cash. $ talks and bulls*#t walks. I have a home loan that's almost paid off. That's it. I saved up and paid cash for my small truck. I use a debit card for just about everything else. No idea what my credit score is. I hope not to have anything to do with these social parasites.
- eclaires, on 06/18/2009, -1/+14Interesting stuff... I wonder how it also compares to debt and income levels... do people in TX make less and have more debt (higher debt to income ratio)?
- sulthernao, on 06/19/2009, -0/+13From wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_t ...
"In terms of race, Asian-Americans households had the highest median household income of $57,518, European-American households ranked second with $48,977, Hispanic or Latino households ranked third with $34,241. African American or Black households had the lowest median household income of all races with $30,134.[57]"
"The mean household income for households headed by persons identifying as White alone was $65,317, $40,685 for those headed by persons identifying as African American or Black, $45,871 for those headed by persons identifying as Hispanic or Latino, and $76,747 for those households headed by persons identifying as Asian alone. Approximately one third, or 36.5%, of all households earned more than the mean income, while 63.5% earned less than the mean.[60]"
Census Citation:
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/a ...
http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032005/hhinc/new06_ ... - sulthernao, on 06/19/2009, -0/+12Massachusetts.
- DirtyVicar, on 06/19/2009, -3/+15Big pickup trucks with dualies and truck nutz aren't cheap.
- kezekiel, on 06/19/2009, -0/+11The creditors want people who will reliably pay their outrageous finance charges. If you pay on time or don't use credit, then you are by definition not a good customer.
I haven't had a credit card or car loan for years. Eff them. - digitalArtform, on 06/19/2009, -0/+11If you pay off your debt every month the credit industry calls you a 'deadbeat.'
I'm totally serious. - snoobies, on 06/19/2009, -1/+11These graphs are so bias because it makes people believe that a state's economy can be solely judged by it's credit score.
Texas is much better than people think in my opinion but still has several areas to work on. No state is perfect regardless if it's a republican state or democratic state.
State Debt per Capita
Alaska, New Hampshire, New York, Massechussetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island are among the worst
None of these 5 states above have high unemployments like you see in other states. 2007
Texas is ranked 27(good) (Michigan-1, Mississippi-2, Alaska-3, SC-4, Ohio-5)
Some of the states are in the top 10 for federal aid-2007
Texas is rank 43(real good) (Wyoming -1, Alaska-2, Lousiana-3, Mississipi-4, Vermont-5)
State GDP - 2007
California-1, Texas -2(real good), New York-3, Florida-4, Illinois -5
Persons below poverty ranking-2007
Sadly Texas ranked 9 (bad) (Mississippi-1, Louisiana-2, New Mexico-3, Arkansas-4, Kentucky-5)
Median Household income 2007
Maryland-1 68,080, New Jersey-2 67,035, Connecticut-3 65,967, Alaska-4 64,333, Hawaii-5 63,746
Texas-23 (good) 47,548 (ranked 10 in Average Annual pay-real good)
Energy Consumption Pe Capita
Alaska 1, Wyoming 2, Louisiana 3, North Dakota 4, Texas 5 ( :( bad)
Home Ownership
New York 50, California 49, Hawaii 48m Nevada 47, Massachusetts 46
Texas-42 (bad depending on how you want to intrepret it)
Resources
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/rankings.ht ...
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/Yourcr ...
"New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island have the highest average overall debt in the nation."
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2002/olrdata/fin/rpt/2002-R- ...
http://www.brb.state.tx.us/bfo/summaries/08/state2 ...
BOND RATINGS AND NET TAX-SUPPORTED DEBT PER CAPITA
* Texas’s general obligation debt is split-rated at Aa1/AA/AA+ by the three credit rating agencies, Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch Ratings, respectively.
* According to Moody’s Investors Service, Texas’ net tax-supported debt per capita is $481, ranking 39th among states. The national average was $1,019.
* Texas’ net tax-supported debt as a percentage of personal income is 1.4 percent, ranking 40th among states.
* Compared to the seven “AAA” rated states, Texas’ net tax-supported debt per capita and net tax-supported debt as a percentage of personal income are the lowest.
http://learn.equifax.com/credit/credit-ranking?pag ... is another good link to check debt of each state.
If you're going bash anyone I think you should bash Alaska since it seems to be the worst state to live in right now. - sulthernao, on 06/19/2009, -2/+12Or it could just be income levels - blacks and hispanics < whites < asians in terms of average income. Southern states are poorer. I would be hesitant to say it has anything to do with geography or race, at least directly.
- HardMoneyMan, on 06/19/2009, -1/+11I lol'd because I live in TX and it's so true.
In all fairness though, they like to scapegoat illegal immigrants for all our problems, but we do borrow too much. - treas, on 06/19/2009, -0/+10http://googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&wo ...
- burgerkinghorn, on 09/02/2009, -1/+10Sadly, that is how they make their money; debt. They don't produce anything and yet these companies are the richest?!
- mecharabbit, on 06/19/2009, -0/+9USA! USA!
- postaldave, on 06/19/2009, -5/+14you don't have to be an american to have a credit card in texas.
- crunchdigg, on 06/19/2009, -0/+9
https://www.annualcreditreport.com
NOT the heavily advertised
freecreditreport.com
which is the scam you are referring to, or one like it.
your FICO (FI is Fair Isaac) score is based on the same info,
and as above says
www.myfico.com
will sell it to you, but get the info first for free, fix any errors,
THEN pay to find out what FICO number your info generates. - Jeepinator, on 06/19/2009, -1/+10It's only a difference of 50-60 points from the states with the highest scores. The numbers don't vary much, but the colors do.
- Awsomo6, on 06/19/2009, -2/+10That's pretty much how I'd sum up the entire country of Canada
- devobergso, on 06/19/2009, -0/+7at least Wisconsin doesn't have T-Paw for a governor...
- NMRgentleman, on 06/19/2009, -0/+7Meh on credit ratings. I see their point, but it's kind of unfortunate that they exist at all. I remember Peter Schiff, whom many of you know must have plenty of money, talking about the trouble he had getting a home loan because he has "poor" credit since he doesn't use credit cards and pays for things outright. But that's a good thing! If anything that should be a sign that you're more responsible with money and can be trusted with a loan if given one, not less.
- tcardone05, on 06/19/2009, -0/+7Lolz, texas. We have bad credit scores.
Lolz, everyone else: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/03/us/2 ...
I'd like to see a graph of hardest hit states by this recession vs the United States. Texas hasn't been hit nearly as hard as the Northeast and California. - BILLCOLLECTORC, on 06/19/2009, -3/+10citation needed
- felman87, on 06/19/2009, -1/+8You don't have to be an American to get a credit card period.
- treas, on 06/19/2009, -4/+11I'm sorry, they're more likely to have persons file for bankruptcy.
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