The pandemic brought a lot of financial hardship to many people and changed consumer behavior. It might surprise you that the credit score of the average New Jerseyan went up.

A website called Upgraded Points, used the following methodology:

The data used in this analysis is from Experian’s What Is the Average Credit Score in the U.S.? research and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System’s Household Debt dataset. To determine the states with the biggest increase in credit scores during COVID-19, researchers at Upgraded Points calculated the change in average credit score from full-year 2019 to September 2022. In the event of a tie, the state with the greater total change in average credit score during the same time period was ranked higher.

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The average credit score in New Jersey was 714 in 2019. By September of 2022, it had risen to 724—an increase of 10 points, or 1.4%.

Stimulus checks and other financial assistance (like loan forbearance) helped people in New Jersey increase their savings and pay down debt; as a matter of fact, delinquencies on loans decreased, helping raise credit scores.

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Consumer spending also decreased for an unfortunate reason: many businesses weren’t open. Also while quarantining, people didn’t go out and spend as much money.

Nationally, Millennials benefitted the most, with an increase of 19 points between 2019 and 2022, but they were followed closely by Generation X with an increase of 18 points over the same period. The Silent Generation — the generation with the highest average credit score — saw the lowest change in credit scores with an increase of just 3 points.

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Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle only.

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