Archive for the 'statistics' Category

Benefits of Boosting Your Credit Score

The Los Angeles Times reported that a 30 point increase in an individual’s credit score could save that person an average of $105 a year - for a grand total of $28 billion in savings for all consumers.

High Income Households Join Credit Party Too

“We had a credit party …”
A report from CNBC indicates that 15 million Americans are either receiving phone calls from creditors are are considering filing for bankruptcy.  And, according to the article, it’s not only the low income that are at the credit party.  Even high income households can get in trouble with credit card [...]

How Many Credit Cards Should You Have?

The Modesto Bee attempted to address the age old question of how many credit cards is too many this past weekend but the resounding answer - it depends - won’t help much in the debate.  The article, found here, is a good discussion of the many factors in the calculation as well as this interesting [...]

Credit Card Counselors Find Average Net Worth of Clients Negative

Atlanta-based Consumer Credit Counseling Service released an interesting statistic as part of an article about its housing counselors in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
“In 2007, the average client’s net worth was $23,569; today, that number is a negative: -$48,095.”
It would be interesting to know what caused that dramatic decline in net worth.  Are clients waiting longer before [...]

Payments on Credit Card Debt Exceed Ten Percent of Income for 1 of 5.

The San Francisco Chronicle published an article criticizing the 2005 bankruptcy reform measures and arguing for Congressional action on predatory lending and loan shark like interest rates.  One credit card debt statistic from the article demonstrates the severity of the problem in America:

monthly service payments on credit card debt for 1 in 5 households exceeds [...]

Credit Card Companies Benefit From High Gas Prices

It’s just too convenient to use credit cards at the gas pump these days.  And the increasing cost of filling up just isn’t helping matters.
A Providence Journal article labeled credit card companies as a major beneficiary of high gas prices.  When gas prices are high, 80 to 90 percent of consumers use credit cards to [...]

Penalty Fees Profit Center for Credit Card Companies

The Epoch Times has an article about the new credit card reform proposals - but it is the couple credit card statistics in the article that are very interesting to me.

Credit card companies spent $1.2 billion in the first three quarters of 2007 on advertising alone.

Credit card companies took in $18 billion in penalty fees [...]