Georgia cities lead the nation in credit card debt

 

The reason for the founding of Georgia, the United States’ thirteenth and final original colony, is unclear.  Some say that the state was founded for and settled by debtors. However, the truth is that Georgia’s founder, James Oglethorpe, only proposed this idea.  After a charter for the colony was approved by King George II in 1732, there were already enough people to settle the southern territory without debtors.

Fast forward about 279 years to today.  One would think that Georgia was indeed founded as a debtors colony and that the state's current denizens share their forefathers’ inclination to assume too much debt. 

According to new research released by Experian, one of the major U.S. credit bureaus, three Georgia cities are among the top 25 U.S. cities where consumers carried the most debt on their credit cards in December 2010.  They are Atlanta, Augusta, and Savannah, the very site where Oglethorpe chose to begin his settlement.  Despite a decrease from the previous year, debt amounts still remain relatively high.  Atlanta’s average bank credit card debt is $4,690; August is $4,575; and Savannah is $4,570.

James Oglethorpe, moved by witnessing first-hand the atrocities of debtors prison in London, dreamed of starting an American colony that gave debtors a chance to start anew. It did not happen quite as he planned.  Nevertheless, now that Georgia cities lead the nation in credit card debt, it seems as if Oglethorpe’s dream did come true, but with an ironic twist.

Read the list of the 25 top cities with the most credit card debt at CNNmoney.com.

How credit cards with no spending limits can hurt your credit score

A great article recently published by The New York Times investigates how credit cards with no limits can hurt your credit score.  I highly recommend that you read it.

Also, be sure to read this article: “There is no such thing as a credit card with no limit”. It will help you better understand how some of these cards actually work.

Study reveals consumers paying credit cards over mortgages. What this really means.

As soon as TransUnion released its research, news headlines announcing the results multiplied like foreclosures in Detroit. The first headline I saw read: “Consumers Paying Credit Card Over Mortgage”.  I was attracted to the story not because it was shocking, but because it confirmed what I already knew would happen.  Let me explain.  Imagine the following predicament:

How to change your name with the credit bureaus after marriage

Finding out how to change your name after marriage can be a difficult and tedious task, especially when it comes to making sure that the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, have current information.  If you have to change your name, my wife’s recent experience will help you avoid increased agony. 

Experian is not a U.S. company and why you should care

Last week, I ate lunch with a financial expert whose company provides consumers with information on how to maintain good credit.  He’s quite a knowledgeable guy and keeps up, for the most part, with the latest financial news and government regulation, as they relate to consumer credit.  So, when I brought to his attention that Experian, one of the three major credit reporting bureaus, is not a U.S. company, he was shocked.  From that point, our conversation focused on Experian. 

Before I explain how Experian’s foreign status can possibly affect consumers in the U.S., I first must give a little background information on the company.  And by the way, all the information I am sharing is in the company’s annual report or publicly available. 

Experian is a European company with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.  It also has offices in London, Nottingham, and Costa Mesa, California U.S.A.  From a global perspective, Experian is much more powerful than Equifax, the most relevant credit bureau in the U.S.  To give you a better perspective of how large Experian is compared to Equifax, let’s compare the two companies’ market capitalization, a measure by which we can classify a company’s size or how much it is worth.  Experian’s market capitalization is about $4.5 billion and Equifax’s is $2.8 billion.