A review of FDIC statistics shows that where you live can make a big difference in how you pay your credit card bills. In fact, Southeasterners are quite a bit more likely to default on their credit card payments than their neighbors to the West. As Jeremy Simon explains on CreditCards.com:
The Southeast’s 2.78 percent of past due credit card debt is more than twice the 1.21 percentage listed for the Southwest region — the area with the lowest amount of credit card debt past due.
The other regions fell somewhere in between. The Far West had the next-largest amount of unpaid credit card debt with 2.42 percent, while people in the Heartland had the second-best handle on their credit card debt: the North Central area reported 2.12 percent and the Midwest region posted 2.26 percent.
Statistic are based on the amount of credit card debt that is between 30 and 90 days past due. The FDIC’s Southwest region includes Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. The Southeast region includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Have a theory about the reason for the difference? Share it through the comments section.