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| One-third of nation flying blind with credit |
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Of course, if 32 percent of respondents
never check their reports, it's hard to say if their
perception reflects the reality.
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| Compared to a year ago, is your credit better or worse? |
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| Source:
Bankrate.com 2007 |
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"We have no way to know whether
their perception of their credit profile (and any
change) is accurate," says Staten, "but,
the responses are rather striking in their optimism. Not
much evidence of pain from adjustments in the subprime
mortgage interest rates or any foreclosure worries.
Generally speaking, consumers seem to think they are
moving forward financially."
It's hard to compare credit scores results
against what one should reasonably expect from the
population as a whole using the Fair-Isaac-reported
population breakdown because half the respondents
didn't know their scores.
For example, if we compare the FICO-reported credit scores with how people rate their credit compared to last year, we see that broken down by state, people in the South have lower credit scores by far than any other region, yet nearly half reported in our survey that their credit is getting better (47 percent).
Ulzheimer suggests that the respondents may have a misunderstanding
of their own credit. In his experience, of the people
who think they have really good credit, 50 percent
do not. And, for those who think they have really
bad credit, it's not always as bad as they believe.
"Credit scoring is still a mystery to the masses; it hasn't
been in the public eye for more than five years or
so," says Ulzheimer. And, he's skeptical of people's
ability to place themselves. "If you don't know
your score as of last month then you can't really
place yourself, because they move that much."
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