{"id":232717,"date":"2025-09-19T10:17:01","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=232717"},"modified":"2025-09-19T10:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:17:07","slug":"georgias-credit-card-habits-cost-residents-more-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=232717","title":{"rendered":"Georgia\u2019s Credit Card Habits Cost Residents More Money"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-yoast-seo-ai-summarize yoast-ai-summarize\"><h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list yoast-ai-summarize-list\">\n<li>Georgia ranks as the third-least disciplined state in credit card use, which may lead to higher interest costs for residents.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Average credit card balance in Georgia is $7,238, with a median income of $62,468.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Georgians use 34% of their available credit, which negatively impacts credit scores despite an average FICO score of 695.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Low incomes, aggressive credit marketing, and financial literacy gaps trap residents in long debt cycles, according to experts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Southern states, including Louisiana and Texas, also show poor credit management trends, indicating regional issues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>If your wallet feels a little lighter each month, you\u2019re not imagining it. A new study finds Georgia is the third-least disciplined state when it comes to credit card use \u2014 and that could mean higher interest bills for many Peach State residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What It Means For You:<\/strong> More Georgians are carrying bigger balances and using a larger share of their available credit, which can raise monthly costs and hurt credit scores when lenders look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What&#8217;s Happening:<\/strong> The Las Vegas law firm Ladah Injury &amp; Car Accident Lawyers analyzed three things for every state: credit card debt as a share of median income, credit card use, and average FICO score. Georgia scored 38.5 out of 100, putting it third from the bottom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Average credit card balance: $7,238<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Median income: $62,468 (balance is 11.6% of income)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Average utilization: 34%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Average FICO score: 695<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Between the Lines: <\/strong>That FICO score looks OK until you see the rest. High balances and high utilization are the real money drains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Scoring breakdown:<\/strong> debt ratio 5\/40, utilization 5\/30, FICO 28\/30 \u2014 Georgia\u2019s low overall score comes from heavy balances and high use of available credit, even though credit scores are near the national average.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Why This Matters:<\/strong> Credit utilization \u2014 how much of your available credit you use \u2014 is a big factor in how lenders and loan rates treat you. Using a third of your credit, as Georgia\u2019s average does, can push interest costs up and slow progress on paying down principal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What They Said:<\/strong> A Ladah spokesperson blamed a mix of low incomes, aggressive credit marketing and gaps in financial literacy, saying those conditions create \u201cperfect storms\u201d that trap people in long debt cycles. The firm published the full analysis and data online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Big Picture: <\/strong>Several Southern states dominate the bottom of the list. The top three worst scores are Louisiana (33.6), Texas (35.6) and Georgia (38.5). The pattern suggests regional trends in income, credit access and consumer education, not just personal failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ladahlaw.com\/\">Ladah Injury &amp; Car Accident Lawyers<\/a>, Experian, U.S. Census<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-yoast-seo-related-links yoast-seo-related-links\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/family\/study-georgia-medicaid-patients-are-being-prescribed-more-opioids-despite-push-for-decreased-use\/\">Study: Georgia Medicaid patients are being prescribed more opioids despite push for decreased use<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/crime\/gwinnett-police-need-your-help-finding-two-credit-card-fraud-suspects\/\">Gwinnett Police need your help finding two credit card fraud suspects<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/georgia-by-the-numbers\/this-georgia-city-is-defying-the-credit-card-debt-trend\/\">This Georgia City is Defying The Credit Card Debt Trend<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/business-economy\/how-high-is-credit-card-debt-in-georgia\/\">How High is Credit Card Debt in Georgia?<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/georgia-by-the-numbers\/credit-card-debt-in-atlanta-averages-over-12000-per-household\/\">Credit card debt in Atlanta averages over $12,000 per household<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n[mailerlite_form form_id=53]\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your wallet feels a little lighter each month, you\u2019re not imagining it. A new study finds Georgia is the third-least disciplined state when it comes to credit card use \u2014 and that could mean higher interest bills for many Peach State residents. What It Means For You: More Georgians are carrying bigger balances and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":948,"featured_media":232719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"large","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16495],"tags":[11699],"class_list":["post-232717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","tag-credit-card","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/948"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}