by Christy Bieber | Dec. 28, 2019
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How does your state stack up to the average?
Across America, credit scores have been steadily climbing to the point where the average American now has pretty good credit.
As recent research from The Ascent on average credit scores shows, however, there are wide variations from one state to the next. In fact, there's more than a 61 point difference between the state with the highest average credit score (Minnesota) and the state with the lowest one (Mississippi).
So where does your state fall when it comes to average credit scores? Read on to find out.
Image source: Getty Images
The average VantageScore in 2018 in America was 694. Since a VantageScore between 661 and 780 is considered to be a good score, this means the average American has a credit score to be proud of. However, residents of certain states beat out this average and did even better.
Just 15 states had average scores equal to or above the nationwide average:
All of the rest of the states had average VantageScores below 694. In most cases, though, these scores were still pretty close to the nationwide average. And in the majority of locales, average scores still fell within the "good" range.
In fact, only Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Texas had average scores that were classified as fair, rather than good.
Here are the scores for the states with below-average VantageScores:
Unless you have a perfect credit score, there's room to boost your score and help bring up your state's average.
You can do this by working to repay debt to reduce your credit utilization ratio; by making sure you have a good mix of different kinds of credit; by always paying every bill on time; and by avoiding behaviors that reduce your score, such as taking on too much new credit at once or maxing out your credit cards.
Of course, while you want to do your part to make sure your state's average score is a good one, you're the person that benefits the most from having great credit. You owe it to yourself to do everything you can to try to earn the score you need to open up the door to affordable borrowing.
As long as you pay them off each month, credit cards are a no-brainer for savvy Americans. They protect against fraud far better than debit cards, help raise your credit score, and can put hundreds (or thousands!) of dollars in rewards back in your pocket each year.
But with so many cards out there, you need to choose wisely. This top-rated card offers the ability to pay 0% interest on purchases into 2022, has some of the most generous cash back rewards we’ve ever seen (up to 5%!), and somehow still sports a $0 annual fee.
That’s why our expert – who has reviewed hundreds of cards – signed up for this one personally. Click here to get free access to our expert’s top pick.
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