If you use credit cards, you know how this works. Credit scores are one representation of your financial habits and are used determine how well you manage your debts. The higher the score, the more likely you can be approved to borrow money for a car or a home. Chances are, you are always trying to tick that number up into the good range.

But how are your neighbors doing and which Michigan cities have the highest and lowest credit scores?  WalletHub compared the median credit scores of residents in over 2,500 U.S. cities to give credit where credit is literally and figuratively due.

Here is how Michigan's largest cities fared from highest to lowest. It shows the average credit score and percentile ranking (best = 99%) compared to all other cities:

  • Ann Arbor          - 748 (90%)
  • Traverse City     - 732 (80%)
  • Bay City             - 693 (50%)
  • Grand Rapids    - 691 (48%)
  • Kalamazoo        - 671 (32%)
  • Battle Creek      - 664 (24%)
  • Jackson             - 669 (30%)
  • Lansing              - 658 (18%)
  • Saginaw             - 658 (18%)
  • Muskegon          - 656 (17%)
  • Port Huron         - 645 (10%)
  • Benton Harbor   - 589 (1%)
  • Flint                    - 587 (1%)
  • Detroit                - 552 (1%)

Not too good here. Only two of Michigan's largest cities are in the top half of all cities in the country for having the best average credit scores. Three of our cities are in the lowest percentile of all cities that were compared. Yikes! Good luck getting a loan! The good news? Several of Michigan's smaller cities had much better credit scores.

Check out this interactive map to search more cities median credit scores:

Source: Wallethub

In order to identify the cities with the highest and lowest credit scores, WalletHub compared the median credit scores of residents in each of 2,572 U.S. cities as of September 2018, based on TransUnion data. In determining the sample, they considered only the city proper in each case and excluded cities in the surrounding metro area.

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