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![Credit Scores in Largest Metropolitan Areas [Infographic]](https://stg1.experian.com/blogs/news/wp-content/uploads/default-post-image.png)
A glimpse at credit scores in the largest metropolitan areas … View our interactive map: Experian’s Fourth Annual State of Credit Report
Do you want to buy gifts for friends and family this holiday season? Check out these great holiday shopping tips from some of our favorite personal finance writers: 1. Think experience over tangible items Stay sane. I’m not kidding. It’s so easy to lose control and get wrapped up in the feeling of needing everything. Back up and question each purchase. Especially gifts. By March, very few people even remember what they got in December – so is it worth overspending for? Think experience over tangible items. If you’re going to drop some cash, do a party or a trip. That’s what people recall and often value. Right now I’m big into Groupon. I love the goods and getaways Amazing deals! Erica Sandberg is one of the nation’s foremost personal finance authorities. She is editor at large for the Bankrate Inc.‘s subsidiary Credit Card Guide and a columnist and reporter for CreditCards.com 2. Use the Shop Savvy App Shop Savvy is a must-have app for every money-conscious consumer. Scan a product's barcode with the ShopSavvy app and you'll get a price comparison. Which other retailers, online or brick & mortar, sell this product and how much is it going for right now? This app is especially helpful on days like Black Friday where impulse shopping runs is fueled by the frenzy and rush of the moment. If you don't have access to a barcode (aka you are shopping around in advance of making a purchase, which is a good habit and a separate topic), you can look up a product by keyword. Carrie Rocha is the author of of the book and writer behind PocketYourDollars.com 3. Three helpful tools to help you shop Every year I have three tools I use in tandem to help me plan my holiday shopping and save money. The first is Karen McCall's free Holiday Planner which really helps me think through what I most want out of my holidays – and how I plan to pay for it. Then, for those things I will purchase online, I go to RetailMeNot.com to check for coupon codes before I hit the "buy" button. I find that those codes can often be used even with the lowest discounted price, so the savings can really add up. And finally, each year I re-read Mary Hunt's book Debt Proof Your Christmas. It reminds me to focus on what's really important, and think about creating memories – not debt. Gerri Detweiler, director of consumer education for Credit.com where she writes about credit and debt, along with money-saving strategies for the holidays 4. Save all your receipts The holiday season is a wonderful time to give gifts and share joy with others. But don’t let your seasonal generosity impact your credit for months or even years to come! My best holiday advice is to save all of your receipts! Whenever you make a purchase this holiday season – whether you bought fruitcake for a holiday dinner or the perfect gift for the special someone in your life – keep all of your receipts in an envelope. After the gift giving is done, you still want to be like Santa – checking your list twice! When your credit card statement comes, check each purchase against your receipts. Make sure that the receipts are all correctly reported in your credit card statement and research any discrepancies, such as if your credit card statement reports a higher purchase amount than the receipt or there is an amount on your statement that you do not have a receipt for. And here’s a bonus tip: If you’re buying gifts with a credit card you don’t use very often, or if you signed up for a new store card, make sure you watch for the bill in the mail and pay it in full and on time! Jeanne Kelly is an author, speaker, and coach who helps consumers achieve a higher credit score & understand credit reporting. Visit her online at JeanneKelley.net and follow her on Twitter at @CreditScoop 5. Stay out of credit card debt I think one of the most important issues during the holidays is staying out of credit card debt. Everyone wants to give their families and friends a great holiday and that's totally understandable. But it's a really bad feeling to start out the New Year in debt. Before you start shopping, make a "holiday budget" and decide how much you'll spend on each person. If you have a rewards credit card, use your rewards to save money. For instance, if you need to travel during the holidays, use your miles to save on airfare. Or redeem your points for a gift card at your teen's favorite store. And if you know you can pay the debt off before interest kicks in, then use your rewards card for purchasing gifts. That way, you earn cash back or miles that you can take advantage of in 2014. Beverly Harzog is a nationally recognized credit card expert, consumer advocate, and author of Confessions of a Credit Junkie: Everything you need to know to avoid the mistakes I made. She runs a popular credit card blog on her website, BeverlyHarzog.com 6. Create a personal layaway plan I have two shopping tips – one of which isn't something that fits within the context of "now." I like to save throughout the year for my gifts during the holidays. So I don't wait until the last few months of the year, I start planning roughly how much I want to spend per person and then putting that money into an account. So if I have ten people to buy for and I budget, $100 each, I'll try to put $1,000 in a savings account throughout the year. It's like a self-made layaway plan. That's not really a good tip right now (maybe next year?). My favorite tip that you can do right now is to try to buy everything online. I hate going into stores, especially during the holidays where the mall is always packed, parking is miserable, and people are miserable. You can buy anything online these days and chances are you can save yourself a lot of money when you shop online because prices are better and sales tax is often not collected unless the merchant has a physical location in your state. Jim Wang is the founder of Bargaineering.com and now writes at MicroBlogger.com 7. Buy gifts throughout the year My best tip is to use the whole year for shopping. Since I already have a list of people to buy for in December, I just hold onto that list – and the ideas I had for them – and look for matching items throughout the year. I have most of my Christmas shopping done and it's only September! Trent Hamm is author of The Simple Dollar and founder of TheSimpleDollar.com 8. No gift policy with close friends. Talk to all your close friends and have a no gift policy. Instead, use some of that money usually spent on wasted gifts and have a great experience together. It could be a simple night out, or even a mini vacation. You'll end up having so much more fun and wondered why everyone concentrates on buying material goods most recipients don't even like in the first place. David Ning is the founder of MoneyNing.com 9. Use these money-saving apps When it comes to holiday shopping, using apps can be one of the best ways you can save money. What are some of the best apps you can use? RedLaser and Price Grabber enable you to comparison shop and find the best deals on the items on your shopping list, SavedPlus automatically causes you to save money each time you make a purchase by depositing a percentage of what you spend from your checking account into your savings account, and Coupon Sherpa or Yowza can help you find coupons to save even more money! With so many easy to use apps to help you save, holiday shopping doesn't have to empty your wallet and can instead help you grow the amount of money in your savings account! Ashley Jacobs is Wise Bread's Community Coordinator and hosts Wise Bread's weekly #WBChat on Twitter 10. Use Evernote to keep track of gift ideas One of my favorite shopping tips is to buy all year as you see interesting things so that you don’t have the pressure on your time, budget, and creativity all hitting you at one time in December. My husband and I do quite a bit of personal travel, so I try to pick up items that represent the area, which makes even a jar of berry jam or spicy mustard special because it came from somewhere else. I often focus on consumables such as jams, unique seasoning mixes, etc. because so many in my family don’t really need to acquire more “stuff.” My "go to" app is Evernote. If you are shopping online and want to remember a page on a site, you clip it to Evernote and you can tag it (possibly with a name of person you were shopping for). It is a great way to keep ideas from all your devices since it works on PC, pad or phone. Maxine Sweet is the Sr. Vice President of Consumer Education at Experian 11. Plan ahead. The best advice I can give is to plan ahead. If you start by making a list of people on your holiday gift list early – as in, before Thanksgiving – then you can strategically take advantage of any deals that you find. For example, you might notice a Black Friday discount at Toys R Us and use the opportunity to get an affordable gift for your niece or nephew (this article from PT Money has good Black Friday tips). Or use the advance time before the holidays to create thoughtful, low-cost gifts that will make people smile because of the time you put into them rather than how much they cost. But perhaps most importantly, if you plan ahead you can start saving a little bit each month leading up to the holidays and use it to get through December without going over budget. Benjamin Feldman is a writer and personal finance expert at ReadyForZero.com, an online tool for paying off debt and building wealth. You can read his work at ReadyForZero's Debt Free Blog.
This guest post is by Gail Cunningham, Vice President of Membership and Public Relations, National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC). Experian’s recent State of Credit Study revealed that The Greatest Generation has something else to brag about: responsibly managing credit. And that’s no small achievement considering that some of these folks have 50 or more years of credit history under their belt. That’s a lot of on-time payments. If you fall into the 65+ age bracket, congratulations! You’ve done a lot right. Now let’s keep a good thing going. Here are some tips to help you stay financially healthy moving forward: Make financial decisions with your head, not your heart. This is difficult to do when a family member reaches out to you for financial help. But remember, you won’t be in a position to help anyone if you can’t support yourself, so think of ways that you can assist family members without putting your own finances in jeopardy. Stay alert about protecting your identity and personal financial information. Seniors are prime targets for scam artists. Never provide personal information over the phone unless you initiated the call, and if you receive an email requesting financial information, don’t respond. Phony emails can look very real, so play it safe by picking up the phone and calling the sender. Make your wallet a little lighter by removing your Social Security and Medicare cards, as these can be the gateway to your personal information if they fall into the hands of a criminal. Get your financial ducks in a row. Know your retirement options in order to maximize your benefits. The decisions you make when leaving your job, beginning Social Security or signing up for Medicare can have long-term implications. Also, review documents such as your will and medical power of attorney to make sure they are up-to-date. Getting advice from a professional in advance of major decisions will pay for itself many times over. Take care of yourself. Medical costs can increase substantially for people as they age, and there are currently many unknowns around healthcare. Therefore, it’s important to do what you can to avoid any unnecessary medical issues. Embrace a healthy lifestyle of eating right and exercising to help keep medical and prescription costs down. Don’t be shy about taking advantage of age-based discounts. There are many perks for people in their 60’s, 70’s and beyond. Look for travel discounts, cheaper cell phone plans, and special discounts at restaurants and movies to make date night even better! The bottom line is to stay the course and not abandon the financial values that have served you well and gotten you where you are today.
Today, we stand at the forefront of a digital revolution that is reshaping the financial services industry. And, against this backdrop, financial institutions are at vastly different levels of maturity; the world’s biggest banks are managing large-scale infrastructure migrations and making significant investments in AI while regional banks and credit unions are putting plans in place for modernization strategies, and fintechs are purpose-built and cloud native. To explore this more, I recently had the privilege of attending the annual Reuters NEXT live event in New York City. The event gathers globally recognized leaders across business, finance, technology, and government to tackle some of today’s most pressing issues. On the World Stage, I joined Del Irani, a talented anchor and broadcast journalist, to discuss the future of lending and the pivotal role of data and AI in building a more inclusive financial system. Improving financial access Our discussion highlighted the lack of access to traditional financial systems, and the impact it has on nearly 100 million people in North America alone. Globally, the problem affects over one billion people. These people, who are credit invisible, unscoreable, or have subprime credit scores, are unable to secure everyday financial products that many of us take for granted. What many don’t realize is, this is not a fringe subset of the population. Most of us, myself included, know someone who has faced the challenges of financial exclusion. Everyday Americans, including young people who are just starting out, new immigrants and people from diverse communities, often lack access to mainstream financial products. We discussed how traditional lending has a limited view of a consumer. Like looking through a keyhole, the lender’s understanding of the person in view is often incomplete and obstructed. However, with expanded data, technology, and advanced analytics, there is an opportunity to better understand the whole person, and as a result have a more inclusive financial system. At Experian, we have a unique ability to connect the power of traditional credit with alternative data, bringing a more holistic understanding of consumers and their behaviors. We are dedicated to leveraging our rich history in data and our expertise in technology to create the future of credit and ultimately bring financial power to everyone. The future of lending After spending two days with over 700 industry leaders from around the world, one thing is abundantly clear: much like the early days of the internet, today, we are at the cutting-edge of a technical revolution. Reflecting on my time at Reuters NEXT, I am particularly excited by the collective commitment to drive innovative, and smarter ways of working. We are only beginning to scratch the surface of how data and technology can transform financial services, and Experian is positioned to play a significant role. As we look to the future, I am excited about the ways we will create new opportunities for businesses and consumers alike.
We believe that financial literacy leads to empowerment. That is why Experian supports initiatives and partners with community organizations to deliver financial education. We also develop products and services that give more control to consumers over their credit profile and financial health. As part of advancing our mission of Financial Power to All®, we are proud to announce we are helping more than 5,000 Hispanic individuals nationwide by relieving $10 million dollars of consumer debt. To provide families with this boost, we joined forces with ForgiveCo, a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), to administer the acquisition and cancellation of qualifying consumer debt for the selected recipients. Beneficiaries will also receive a one-year premium Experian membership for free that offers access to their Experian credit report in English and Spanish[i], FICO® Score[ii], bilingual educational content, and other financial resources. We hope this effort helps raise awareness of the importance of financial literacy for everyone, and that Experian has resources to help individuals reach their financial dreams. To amplify the message, we collaborated with multi-platinum, award-winning singer and songwriter Prince Royce and you can see his video here. In fact, we have been making a concerted effort the last several years to evolve our educational resources and products to better support all underserved communities. Some of our other activities include the creation of the B.A.L.L. for Life initiative that connects African American and Hispanic youth with financial education, supporting scholarships for Asian Americans through the Ascend organization, providing custom resources for Out & Equal and Born This Way Foundation for the LGBTQ+ community, supporting the NextGen Innovation Lab for Disability:IN, and sponsoring credit counseling for the military community with Operation HOPE. For resources in Spanish, Experian offers a credit e-book and consumers can access a full suite of articles at the Ask Experian blog here. [i] Only Experian credit reports are available in Spanish. All other services associated with an Experian membership are available in English only. English fluency is required for full access to Experian’s products. [ii] Credit score calculated based on FICO® Score 8 model. Your lender or insurer may use a different FICO® Score than FICO® Score 8, or another type of credit score altogether. Learn more.
Amid some of the financial challenges that underserved communities experience, members across the financial services community remain committed to championing initiatives and programs that drive greater financial inclusion. In fact, collaboration has led to the inclusion of non-debt related payment information on consumers’ credit profiles, as well as digital services that make it easier to manage money. These efforts have helped to broaden access to fair and affordable financial resources for more individuals. While significant progress has been made, there is still more work to do. However, some of the misconceptions and myths about the financial services community are hindering further advancement. Debunking these myths will accelerate progress by building trust between the financial services community and consumers. Person withdrawing money from ATM contactless Myth #1: “Financial institutions have no interest in underserved consumers or credit invisibles.” The truth is, banks and credit unions want to say “yes” to more prospective borrowers, including individuals and families from underserved communities. Beyond being the right thing to do, it’s an opportunity to potentially build lifelong relationships with a relatively untapped market. A show of good faith to communities who have largely been ignored by the financial system could lead to customer loyalty that may extend to their family and friends. That’s why participants across the financial ecosystem have been proponents of including expanded data sources—such as on-time telecom, utility and video streaming service payments—on to consumer credit reports, as well as exploring other Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)-regulated data sources, including payment data on short-term small dollar loans and expanded public records data. Making this data more accessible to lenders provides a more comprehensive view of a consumer’s ability and willingness to repay outstanding debt—an actionable solution to extending credit to consumers without lenders taking on additional risk. Myth #2: “There is a lack of trustworthy financial education resources.” The financial services community and affiliated organizations recognize that empowering people with financial knowledge and skillset are critical to consumers’ financial success. In fact, banks and credit unions are partnering with nonprofits and non-governmental organizations to better understand the unique challenges and opportunities within specific communities and provide relevant tools and resources. For example, Experian’s B.A.L.L. for Life (Be A Legacy Leader) program, launched in partnership with the National Urban League, serves as a catalyst for engaging with Black communities and low-income youth through live events and digital financial education. Subject matter experts, professional athletes, celebrities, and other influencers share their experiences and expertise, covering topics such as banking, credit, financial management and investing. In addition, to help people improve their financial management, Experian partners with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC). The NFCC connects consumers with certified financial counselors to help them address various pain points, including debt management, homeownership, student loans or small business cash flow issues. Myth #3: “Underserved communities have few opportunities to build credit and enter the mainstream financial system.” People from underserved communities, as well as younger consumers and recent immigrants are often excluded from the mainstream financial system because they lack an extensive credit history. Historically, it’s created a vicious cycle; in order to get credit, you have to have credit. Fortunately, there has been a sea change in innovative solutions to address the specific needs of these populations. These include new credit scoring models and microfinancing which provide financial services to individuals who may have been excluded from traditional banking systems. In addition, by incorporating expanded data sources, such as telecom, utility and residential rental payments onto credit reports, lenders have more visibility into consumers who may have been excluded by traditional credit scoring methods.These programs help individuals and families from underserved communities establish and build a credit history that could enable loans, or the ability to rent an apartment or open their dream business. An example is Experian Boost®, a free feature that allows Experian members to contribute their history of making utility, cellphone, insurance, residential rent and video streaming service payments directly into their Experian credit profile. By incorporating nontraditional credit data like paying utility bills on time, online banking transactions, rental payments and verified income data, more people can establish a credit profile that can potentially qualify them for a loan. More Inclusion, Fewer Myths It’s encouraging that community organizations and banks are beginning to see the economic and social benefits of aligning on financial literacy and inclusion. As more initiatives come online, underserved populations will be able to establish a better financial foundation. Then, we can declare the myths to be history.