A report was released last week by creditkarma.com, a web-based news reporting website which aslo gives consumers their free, no-strings attached credit score based on TransUnion data.

The report is generated by credit karma on a monthly basis, and is dubbed the “U.S. Consumer Credit Score Climate Report”. It is based on comparisons of current credit scores within its 350,000 person database with scores pulled within a minimum of 30 day window (maximum 90 days) for the current month.

The article or news release shouts out “Recession Begins to Take a Toll on Consumer Credit Scores”. According to credit karma’s CEO, the reasoning for the tapering off of rising credit scores and the increase in consumers with decreasing scores is due to the impact of job losses experienced over the holidays and early this year. The speculation is that many families are utilizing their credit cards to stay afloat between jobs, and these higher balances are a key aspect of the credit to debt ratio that credit scores are so tied to. OK, this seems like a reasonable deduction, we’ll continue onward.

Some of the major findings contained in the report:

• Compared with March, more consumers’ credit scores are decreasing. Nationally, 29% of consumers saw a decrease in their credit score in April. In March 2009, 27% of consumers saw a decrease in their credit score.
• Ohio, which over the past few months has been one of the states with the highest percentage of credit scores increasing, now has the highest percentage of credit scores decreasing. In April, 31% of consumers in Ohio saw a decrease in their credit score. In March 2009, that percentage was 29%. In Ohio, 40% of consumers still saw an increase in their credit score during April 2009, but that is down significantly from 44% increase in March and the 42% increase in February. The current average credit score in Ohio is 666, which is down a point from March.
• California also saw a large percentage of decreasing credit scores, particularly in the Bay Area. In the Bay Area, 36% of credit scores increased, 29% decreased, and 35% remained the same.
• For the third month in a row, the Midwest had the highest increase with 42% of consumers seeing their credit scores go up in April. The average up credit score in the Midwest is 675. In March 2009, 44% of Midwest consumers saw their credit scores rise and the average up score was 676. Amongst states, Virginia saw the most credit scores go up in April. 44% of Illinois consumers had their credit scores rise and the average up score is 677.

The data is interesting to me. I can understand the problems that California has, everything is overvalued and overspent there. But what is it about the Midwest that keeps them on the straight and narrow? Is it good old fashioned Midwestern values that are keeping them out of debt? Is it the price of corn? Are we eating more beef? Readers, help me out here!

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