• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Home
About Us Contact Us Advertising
Articles
Budgeting Debt Frugal Insurance Investing Making Money Retirement Saving Money
Tips
Money Saving Tips Trash Audit
Make Money Forums Blogs
Create a Blog Control Panel All Entries All Blogs
Tools
Calculators Prescription Drug Coupons Online Savings Accounts Test Your Knowledge Financial Directory Credit Cards

SavingAdvice.com Blog

Bridging the gap between saving money and investing

Subscribe

 

Join Now or Login

  • Home
    • Advertising
  • Tips
    • Money Saving Tips
    • Recycle, Reuse and Repurpose
  • Make Money
  • Credit Score Guide
  • Forums
  • Blogs
    • Create a Blog
  • Tools
  • Financial Basics
    • Back to Basics: Saving Money
    • Back to Basics: Beginners Guide to Retirement
    • Back to Basics: What Every Child Under 10 Should Know About Personal Finance
    • Back to Financial Basics: Investing In Stocks

Does Where You Live Impact Your Credit Score?

February 16, 2016 by Amanda Blankenship

Where You Live Affect Your Credit Score
Your credit score is more important than you know. People are constantly looking at it, making decisions about your ability to handle finances. That number can impact all different parts of your life and, while it is just a number, it can prevent you from doing a lot of things. Missing payment on a bill or ignoring creditors can be a big mistake. However, according to a new survey, where you live may have an impact on how you handle debt collectors and how much of your debt is sent to collections too.

Does it really matter where you live when it comes to finance? Well, maybe. According to a new survey released by Credit Karma, there may be some kind of connection between the two. People ages 18 to 24 Taking a look at the 100 largest cities in the United States, the company was able to determine where this age group seemingly has the most debt in collections.

Utility bills, credit card payments and other debts can be easily thrown away. Seeing a debt collector on your caller ID can make it pretty easy to dodge them too. However, throwing it away and ignoring it will not make your debt disappear. Eventually, your debt will be sent along to a collections agency which leaves a mark on your credit report for more than seven years. Young people are especially vulnerable to this.

According to recent studies, only about 28 percent of people between 18 and 24 received any kind of financial education prior to college. Forty-four percent of that same age group has said that they’ve already had accounts sent to collections. But, it seems that they are way too young for that to have happened, right? Well, no. Most 24-year-old have at least one item in collections right now.

This type of financial hardship seems to be running rampant in certain parts of the country. Certain cities seemingly have more young people in debt than others. Is it because they have more young people in the area or because that area simply doesn’t provide enough financial education to these young folks to make a difference? It is up for discretion, however, it is most likely the latter rather than the former sending these young men and women into debt.

The following 10 cities have the most people ages 18-24 who have items that have been sent to collections (city and average number of items in collections – rounded the nearest tenth):

  1. Milwaukee, WI: 3.2
  2. Louisville, KY: 2.3
  3. Indianapolis, IN: 2.3
  4. Charlotte, NC: 2.2
  5. Greensboro, NC: 2.2
  6. St. Petersburg, FL: 1.2
  7. Las Vegas, NV: 2.0
  8. St. Louis, MO: 2.0
  9. Reno, NV: 2.0
  10. Birmingham, AL: 1.9

It seems that throughout the entire country (and maybe especially in North Carolina and Nevada) people are having difficulty managing their finances before they even hit the age of 30. Though a bit disheartening, there may be something to take away from this (and no, it’s not to avoid these cities). There needs to be a movement, nationwide, to better financial education for people prior to heading off to college. It could make all the difference in these people’s lives.

Photo: Flickr: Simon Cunningham

Amanda Blankenship
Amanda Blankenship is a full-time stay-at-home mom. Her family recently welcomed their second child, a baby boy, into the world. She loves writing about various topics, including politics and personal finance. In her spare time, Amanda loves to play with her kids, make food from scratch, crochet, and read.

Reader Interactions

What did you think about this article?
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...

Comments

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Primary Sidebar

    • Articles
    • Tips
    • Make Money
    • Credit Score Guide
    • Forums
    • Blogs
    • Tools
    • About
    • Contact

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
    Your subscription has been successful.
    Copyright © 2025 SavingAdvice.com. All Rights Reserved.
    • Privacy Policy