How do the credit scores of residents locally stack up against one another, and across communities across the country? Those living in Vienna have reason to cheer their results.
Vienna’s median FICO score of 772 was better than 98 percent of communities across the nation, according to new figures from Wallet Hub, which looked at credit scoring in nearly 2,600 U.S. communities.
Vienna ranked 49th nationally, topping the list of local communities whose credit scores were parsed.
Keep in mind that it’s not a competition.
“Credit scores aren’t solely a reflection of responsibility – it’s possible to have your credit score drop due to financial hardship that’s out of your control,” Wallet Hub analysts noted.
“Fortunately, research shows that the average American actually increased their credit score in 2021, which shows that people are making smart financial decisions in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” they said.
(Find the full survey at https://wallethub.com/edu/credit-score-by-city/86509.)
Across the nation, the highest credit scores among the communities in the ranking were turned in by The Villages (Fla.) at 806; Sun City West (Ariz.) at 792; Oro Valley (Ariz.) at 789; Santa Monica (Calif.) also at 789; and Laguna Woods (Calif.) at 788.
San Francisco (755), Seattle (752) and Honolulu (747) were the highest among large U.S. cities.
On the other end of the scale, Glendale (Ariz.) had the lowest median FICO score, at 517. New Orleans (552) was second overall and worst among big cities.
How did other Northern Virginia localities shape up? From the data:
• McLean’s median score of 765 put it in the 95th percentile and 138th place.
• Fairfax City’s median score of 756 put it in the 88th percentile and 300th place.
• Leesburg’s median score of 750 put it in the 83rd percentile and 48th place.
• Arlington’s median score of 754 put it in the 87th percentile and 334th place.
• Falls Church’s median score of 743 put it in the 78th percentile and 568th place.
What tips do the experts have for a person trying to increase their credit score in a short amount of time?
“The most important thing a person can do is check and correct any errors,” said Ryan Law, a faculty member of Utah Valley University and director of its Money Management Resource Center.
“About 20 percent of credit reports contain an error that could affect a person’s credit score, so getting those errors fixed is important,” he said. “After correcting errors, the best things a person can do is pay their credit bills on time (which accounts for 35 percent of a score) and keep their balances low (which accounts for 30 percent of a score).”
FICO is the trade name of a firm founded in the 1950s as Fair, Isaac & Co. (hence the acronym) to provide data-analytics services. It uses various proprietary methods of analyzing a person’s credit-worthiness. FICO scores are accessed by American lenders to the tune of billions of times per year.