Credit Trends

Trends by Domain

Our lives are full of numbers: Phone numbers, social security numbers, birthday dates, lottery numbers, lucky numbers... the list goes on. But, no number says more about us than our old favorite, the credit score.

Our credit scores speaks of our creditworthiness, gives potential lenders a peek into our credit history and even predicts our financial future. However, recent correlations have been drawn between credit scores and other factors... saying more about us than we'd ever imagined. Here are a few examples:

According to the Insurance Information Institute, drivers with lower credit scores file 40% more claims than drivers at the higher end of the credit scale.

Forget "red" state, "blue" state... certain states also have higher credit scores than others. The Dakotas and Wisconsin lead the country while Texas and Nevada have the lowest average credit scores.

We found another intriguing credit score correlation, email address domains. Based on a sample of 20,000 credit scores, our data shows that there is a difference of average scores based on what email service users prefer. Interestingly, Gmail and Comcast users came out the top with a higher average, while AOL and Yahoo users had the lowest average credit scores.

What does it all mean? Not much. Certainly switching email providers will not increase or decrease your credit score. It's more the case that people with a certain score have a greater likeliness to use a particular email provider. Why this happens is probably due to some demographic skew which then carries to the email domain. But that's not the point, we just thought it was interesting.

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USER COMMENTS(26)

egyptor
Oct 19
6:57 pm

I am a statistics major in undergrad and found that this graph was extremely interesting. But logically, it would make sense that this would be so.

People who have a Comcast email would be paying for their address. If they fail to make payments, the account is terminated (at least as far as I'm aware)...meaning that these people better have good credit or else they can't use their account.

Furthermore, everyone who uses GMail more or less switched to it from either hotmail or yahoo (stated in a simpler manner, those who use GMail made a choice, whereas those using Yahoo were just grandfathered in). People who changed over (including me) had a huge incentive IF they understood what their email account stats meant. I.e. what if someone doesn't understand what the difference between a MB and GB is? Why would ANYONE change over from 5MB (yahoo at the time) to only 1GB (Initial GMail).

Lastly, I rarely trust yahoo. Why would I? Almost all the "Nigerian scam" email I've ever either from Yahoo or some random server name, only a few from hotmail, and I've yet to see any from GMail. Still furthermore, maybe the lower score for Yahoo users (on average) is due to those who are more likely to fall for scams being on that service.

Of the 20 people I most commonly email, every single one is either using GMail or have their own Google apps service (meaning, they're still using Google).

Lastly, I wish this included age gradients. I'd expect that those ~20-ish would be mostly GMail, ~50+ would be mostly yahoo/AOL. The rest would be sprinkled about.

This isn't to say that there are NO exceptions...I'd just say a trend.

TriciaLee
Sep 8
1:04 pm

I always use my Yahoo address because it remains constant, regardless of my ISP. I've had email from people who change their internet providers constantly, so it is better to have one address that is always the same. I have two other addresses, one for business and one through my ISP, but they bounce through to Yahoo. When I got my Yahoo address, I had never heard of gmail (maybe it didn't exist then). Oh, yes, my score is almost 800.

cpto
Sep 4
7:00 am

I see one problem with this chart: grandfathering. I was on AOL as a tester before it was even called AOL. I even beta tested their satellite connection.

By the time faster ISPs became available (mine is now 20 MB/s down) I had so many businesses and friends with my AOL email address it would have been nearly impossible to change.

Sometimes, usage of a service does not reflect current preferences, but is just so entangled with you and your identity it's not worth the effort to drop it.

WoooHooo
Oct 22
5:22 pm

You should buy a domain (like myfoobar.com). I bought a domain for myself that's same as my last name about 10 years ago. Since then, I switched several countries, countless ISP providers, used several email providers, even some time had my own linux box in the basement be my mail server, and finally settled down on gmail. And all this time using same email address (which is of form fist-name@last-name.org).

Most registrars will**t your domain and forward all email to email provider of your choice for free. Depending on email provider you want to use, you might not even need this service from domain registrar.

Domains are like $10/year. More than worth it.

frinxor
Aug 14
7:04 pm

What a fascinating graph... I'm no stats expert but can this be random from the sample sizing? I really doubt it can be, but this is just really interesting. Great job with the website guys!

CK Moderator

It is a very large sample. Mostly correlated to the demographics of the various user bases.

EVRYEDGE
Jun 9
4:21 pm

I use gmail, my score is pretty high as well. But I have used yahoo and hotmail in the past - the amount of garbage cluttered on those sites makes them unbearable!

grapeswhiz
Jun 9
3:29 pm

It's very true that yahoo *tends to* attract less sophisticated computer users. I already knew this; not that it would keep me from using any e-mail address I would like (I have several) but noticing that someone has a comcast account immediately lends some degree of credibility, whereas a yahoo account inspires a slight bit of suspicion. It was interesting to see that my observation is confirmed by the chart.

AboveAverage
May 22
4:47 pm

I rarely view my account from a public computer and "knock on wood" have not been "victimized". I use strong password techniques and it would be difficult to "guess" my password.

Yahoo, as I said, is just so much more convenient.

htdougherty
May 21
1:29 pm

could it be that people using less secure email such as yahoo and AOL fall victim to identity theft, which in turn lowers their score?

CK Moderator

Interesting theory. We'll let other comment on it. My take is that is just goes to the demographics of the different user bases. Some are younger, and stronger in certain geographies. Those all have correlations to credit scores.

AboveAverage
May 21
7:10 am

I purposely don't use my Cablevision e-mail. Yahoo is just a million and one times more convenient than anything else. I may not use cable forever, perhaps it will be FIOS, but I still won't use the provider's e-mail. Yahoo just makes more sense, as it is with you for life. Having said that, the study is "interesting", but I would hope that creditors would never hold email domains as "gospel". I have a 677 CK score and a 703 Fico (both Transunion). I am a proud Yahoo user. :-)

jpayne21
Apr 28
10:30 am

This IS an interesting comparison between email accounts. I believe Yahoo is the loweset, just because it has so many users that it would take many high credit scorers to even out the multitude of poor credit scorers. Plus, yahoo mail is much more advertised than gmail. People with lower credit scores tend to take the first offer give to them (maybe not the best rate) and were maybe hasty to get into a credit/debt situation that was not in their control. Most people tend to act this way, it is human nature to trust others who are in a "position" to offer them a loan (even though the "lender" is just another human being who is working for someone else, and even themselves, not that connected to the personal lending situation).