Arizona retirement communities Sun City West and Green Valley ranked in the top ten overall small Cities with the Highest & Lowest Credit Scores in 2017. With negative records from the Great Recession continually dropping off consumers’ credit reports and debt levels pushing toward to pre-recession highs, the free-credit-score website WalletHub released their study on the Cities with the Highest & Lowest Credit Scores.
Considering that the average American has a credit score of 669 and 10% of the largest U.S. cities have “bad” credit, WalletHub also prepared some tips to guide people to credit improvement and all the savings that come with it. You can find a few highlights below, including the highest average credit scores by city size.
1 | The Villages, FL (779) |
2 | Los Altos, CA (757) |
3 | Lexington, MA (756) |
4 | Sun City West, AZ (756) |
5 | Saratoga, CA (754) |
6 | Sun City Center, FL (753) |
7 | Green Valley, AZ (750) |
8 | Colleyville, TX (749) |
9 | Pittsford, NY (748) |
10 | Needham, MA (748) |
Credit-Improvement Tips
- Find Out Where You’re Starting From: It’s impossible to gauge progress without a baseline. There are plenty of free-credit-score sites to choose from, including WalletHub, which is the only one offering free daily updates.
- Check Your Credit Report for Errors: Roughly 1 in 5 credit reports contains an error. Reviewing your credit reports – you can get your full TransUnion report from WalletHub – and disputing any inaccuracies you find could help you achieve some quick credit-score gains.
- Make Sure Positive Information Is Flowing: A steady stream of positive information into you credit reports is needed to establish a track record of financial responsibility or diminish the importance of previous mistakes. Opening a secured credit card is one of the easiest ways to accomplish this.
- Don’t Show Desperation for Credit: Don’t apply for credit cards too frequently. And don’t use all of the credit made available to you.
For more information on these and other credit-improvement strategies, click here