Hispanics Ready to Get Serious about Their Credit Scores [INFOGRAPHIC]

While Hispanic Americans are more likely to feel dissatisfied with their credit scores than Americans overall (37 percent vs. 32 percent), the Chase Slate 2016 Credit Outlook also finds that Hispanics are expressing a greater desire to improve their credit score over the next year (72 percent), as compared to Americans overall (66 percent). Seventy percent of Hispanics believe a higher credit score would lead to greater happiness and opportunities compared to just 59 percent of Americans overall. And the survey suggests that they believe they’re on the right path, with 44 percent of Hispanics saying the choices they are making today will definitely help their credit worthiness in the future, compared to 39 percent of Americans.

Key Findings:

•     Hispanics scrutinize their personal finances more than other consumers. A majority of Hispanics negatively rate their personal financial situation (55 percent fair/poor vs. 45 percent good/excellent) – a contrast to Americans overall who are more likely to express a positive sentiment than negative (54 percent good/excellent vs. 46 percent fair/poor). In addition, just 10 percent of Hispanics rate their personal financial situation “excellent,” compared to 17 percent of Americans overall.
•     Ambivalence, fear lead many Hispanics to not check their credit score. Just over half of Hispanics (54 percent) have checked their credit score in the last year, compared to 60 percent of Americans nationally. Additionally, one-in-five Hispanics (20 percent) has never checked their credit score – six points higher than all Americans (14 percent). Among Hispanics who did not check their credit score in the last year, when asked why, 40 percent said it’s because they had no reason to, 35 percent indicated that they meant to, but didn’t get around to it, while nearly one-third (29 percent) said it’s because they were afraid it would be a low number.
•     Hispanics recognize the value of checking their credit score (or their spouse’s). Although Hispanics appear less engaged with their credit history than Americans overall, they are more likely to believe they would have benefited from checking their score at certain instances in their life (60 percent vs. 53 percent), particularly before applying for a loan (57 percent among Hispanics) and before trying to buy a house (49 percent among Hispanics). Also, one-in-five of those Hispanics who have a spouse or partner (20 percent) indicate that they would have benefited from knowing their spouse’s or partner’s credit score before getting married.
•     Hispanic Millennials are even more determined to improve their credit scores. Although Hispanic Millennials are more positive about their personal financial situation than all Hispanics (50 percent of Hispanic Millennials rate it Good/Excellent vs. 45 percent of all Hispanics), they are more likely to want to improve their credit score in 2016 (78 percent of Hispanic Millennials vs. 72 percent of all Hispanics). Big factors in spurring the desire of Hispanic Millennials to improve their credit score are their interest in buying a house in the near future (63 percent of Hispanic Millennials vs. 50 percent of all Hispanics) and starting a family (26 percent of Hispanic Millennials vs. 16 percent of all Hispanics).
•     Hispanics plan to take an ‘all bills, no-frills’ approach to improving their credit scores. The most popular plans among Hispanic consumers to improve credit scores include paying bills on time (65 percent), paying off debt (60 percent) and keeping credit card balances relatively low (41 percent).