How Do You Compare?

How Does Your Credit Use Compare?

Provided by the credit scoring experts at myFICO.com

Do you wonder how your credit use compares to that of a typical U.S. consumer? Consumers vary widely in what types of credit they use and how they use it. Fair, Isaac surveyed the panorama of credit activity across the U.S. by analyzing a large sample of credit file information about people who recently obtained new credit. The following statistics reflect the average use of credit by today's consumers.

Number of Credit Obligations

On average, today's consumer has a total of 11 credit obligations on record at a credit bureau. These include credit cards (such as department store charge cards, gas cards, or bank cards) and installment loans (auto loans, mortgage loans, student loans, etc.). Not included are savings and checking accounts which typically are not reported to a credit bureau. Of these 11 credit obligations, 7 are likely to be credit cards and 4 are likely to be installment loans.

Past Payment Performance

On average, today's consumers are paying their bills on time. Fewer than 4 out of 10 have ever been reported as 30 or more days late on a payment. Only 2 out of 10 have ever been 60 or more days overdue on any credit obligation. 85% of all consumers have never had a loan or account that was 90+ days overdue, and fewer than 10% have ever had a loan or account closed by the lender due to default.

Credit Utilization

About 48% of credit card holders carry a balance under $1,000. About 10% are far less conservative in their use of credit cards and have total card balances in excess of $10,000. When we looked at the total of all credit obligations combined (except mortgage loans), we found that 54% of consumers carry less than $5,000 of debt. This includes all credit cards, lines of credit, and loans — everything but mortgages. Nearly 30% carry more than $10,000 of debt excluding mortgages, as reported to the credit bureaus.

Total Available Credit

The typical consumer has access to $12,190 of credit on all credit cards combined. More than half of all people with credit cards are using less than 30% of their total credit card limit. Just over 1 in 8 consumers are using 80% or more of their credit card limit.

Length of Credit History

The average consumer's oldest obligation is 13 years old, indicating that he or she has been managing credit for at least that long. In fact, we found that 1 out of 5 consumers who recently applied for credit had credit histories of 20 years or longer. Only 1 in 20 consumers had credit histories shorter than 2 years.

Inquiries

When someone applies for a loan or a new credit card account — in short, any time someone applies for credit and a lender requests a copy of the credit report — this request is noted as an "inquiry" in the applicant's credit file. The average consumer has had only one inquiry on his or her accounts within the past year. Fewer than 7% had four or more inquiries resulting from a search for new credit.