Answer: 18 year olds with average FICO score of 713

Questions: 

• Based on the chart above, why do you think that 18 year olds have the highest credit score among 18-30 year olds?
• Between what two ages do you see the sharpest drop? What do you think happened to cause this drop? 
• What are steps that you can take to have a high credit score when you are 18? 

Here's the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (from Experian)

Not surprisingly, overall debt amounts in this age group grew as people neared age 30. Of all people under 30, the 29-year-olds had the highest average total debt amounts, totaling $66,139. That's nearly double the under-30 average, but still almost $30,000 less than the national average of $93,446 in total debt.

The trend was reversed when it came to credit scores, with FICO^® Scores decreasing as U.S. consumers neared 30. As newcomers to credit without much time to make mistakes, 18-year-olds had the highest scores—713—of adults under 30. Meanwhile, 29-year-olds had an average FICO Score of 660, the lowest score of adults under 30.

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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