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)

bobcatsat
Mar 27
9:05 pm

Aren't FICO scores really an "I love debt" score? The more debt you have, the better your score. Think about it, a MILLIONAIRE who is debt free would have a ZERO credit score. He could not get a good apartment if the company checked his credit score, but could write a check and BUY THE WHOLE COMPLEX.

Just a thought....don't get too hooked on this stuff. Pay off your debts, live on less than you make and refuse to participate in all of the hype and fear generated in this economy.

CK Moderator

Your statement is partially correct. You don't need debt to have good credit. You need a responsible habit of paying bills on time to have a good credit score. Credit can be a great convenience if you used properly. We agree that getting "hooked" on debt is not a good thing.

elwood
Mar 26
1:40 pm

Perhaps AOL's and Yahoo's marketting trolls for and attract those who aren't that computer/internet savvy culling them from the digihead braniacs! Not a fool proof theroy though since I have Yahoo.... hey, be nice!

rtcpenguin
Mar 10
7:43 pm

Credit scores are probably also highly correlated with IQ. I'm guessing the higher IQ folks use gmail and vice versa.

xerocuttre
Mar 10
7:32 pm

19 and Gmail WOO!

GGIRL2
Mar 8
8:05 am

Is it just me, but doesn't the graph show that Bellsouth(which I happpn to be) has the higher score.

mmetzroth
Mar 6
10:06 pm

Well, I am 19 and I had a score that hovered around 730 until I took out a personal loan to pay for a vehicle. But, after only two payments on the vehicle my score has already recovered 10 points so I hope it continues to do so. I am personally a yahoo user and I also think this is an interesting study. Makes me want to sign up for a GMail account :P

baileydamion
Feb 23
4:11 am

Interesting analysis since i recently switched from Comcast and i am sure the score would have been the same . the score was fair

jennesy
Feb 15
10:57 am

Interesting correlation - It would be interesting to see additional differences between Gmail and Yahoo/AOL users.

kalbertk
Feb 5
6:24 am

Yahoo and AOL have been around the longest. I use Yahoo because my personal e-mail has been through them for about 14 years. Others who first set up e-mail my have stuck with Yahoo - including older folks who don't have or don't use credit as often.

imayankee
Jan 12
2:37 pm

I had a Chapter 7 bankruptcy 4 years ago due to a messy child custody suit and the debt incurred therefrom. I am absolutely amazed a how quickly my credit has come back and would like to pass this info along so that others like me don't give up hope. There is light at the end of the tunnel!