POTTSTOWN PA – Americans tightened their belts in the weak economy, and reduced credit card debt by an average of 15 percent since last May (2010), a national credit news service reported Thursday (June 9, 2010). Even with less debt, though, average credit scores – the yardstick most banks use to determine whether or not to loan money – also dropped, it said, by about 3 points to an average of 667 during the same 12 months.
All the more reason, a Pottstown lawyer and Lower Pottsgrove resident might contend, for local consumers to know what their credit reports say about them. “If you have a credit card, any other kind of loan or even unpaid bills, there is a credit report about you!,” writes attorney R. Kurtz Holloway, and understanding what it tells others is important, he adds.
Holloway this month (June) authored an article titled “Credit Reports Explained,” that was published on the website of his law firm, Wells Hoffman Holloway & Stauffer LLP, 635 E. High St., Pottstown PA. Read it in full, here.
Reporting agencies, which collect credit information on almost every individual and provide it to financial institutions for their loan decision-making, most commonly use a standardized scoring system to rate personal creditworthiness, Holloway wrote. The score can range from 300 to 850; the higher your score, he noted, the better the credit rating.
In a separate article, which coincidentally appeared last week, Collections & Credit Risk magazine reported that – despite the factn many consumers cut their debt – overall credit scores went down too. The reason, it said, was a combination of prolonged unemployed among some of those who owe money, and declining real estate values that adversely affected their level of personal wealth.
As of last month, Collections & Credit Risk said, the average consumer owed a total of $6,740 on his or her credit cards. That’s down from about $7,700 over the past year.
Things elsewhere in Pennsylvania were worse, the Collections & Credit Risk report cited. Consumers in the Harrisburg-Carlisle PA area, it said, are among five communities nationwide that currently “have the highest amount of credit card debt in the country, at $7,000 or more.”
Other statistics noted in the Collections & Credit Risk story:
- Average mortgage debt nationwide fell 2 percent over 12 months to $172,957;
- Consumers increased auto loan debt 2 percent to $15,217;
- Home equity debt fell by 5 percent to $48,310; and
- Student loan debt increased 5 percent to $29,680.
Holloway, who also serves as solicitor for Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, wrote that consumers can obtain free copies of their credit reports each year from each of three credit reporting agencies, here. Free copies also are available by calling 877-322-8228, Holloway wrote.
Graphic from TheDigeratiLife.com
Holloway, a 
No, nothing’s happened to long-time 
Holloway said he purposely delayed the municipality’s purchase of property from owners John and Dawn Kelius, which had been scheduled for earlier this week, until this morning (Friday, Dec. 17, 2010) at 9:30 a.m., to stay away from form-filing headaches.
