At Blue Water Credit, we focus on educating our clients so they’re empowered to make good financial decisions that save them a lot of money. Today, we thought we’d bring you some valuable information in a different form – covering credit, debt and financial facts from 1 all the way to $15 trillion!

1 You may lose your one and only chance at buying your dream home if your credit score isn’t up to par!

3 The number of credit bureaus that collect and maintain your credit information and issue reports: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.

5% of all credit reports contain errors according to The Federal Trade Commission (although other sources estimate that as many as 1 in 4 reports have incorrections).

11.7% of the population has a credit score of 549 or less. That’s a lot of low scorers, but much better than in 2009, when 16% of the population had a score below the 549 mark!

12 That’s how many open credit lines the average American consumer has open.

13% of all consumers have filed for one (or more!) bankruptcy in the last 10 years.

13.4 That’s the average annual percentage rate of all credit cards with a balance in the U.S.

14% The percentage of Americans have less than 10 years of credit history.

17 The number of years credit history for the average American.

20% of all U.S. consumers have at least one derogatory public record on their credit report like a judgment, lien, etc.

20.4% of Americans have a FICO score ranging from 800 to 850, which is excellent!

21% of all consumers have at least one delinquency within the last two years reporting on their credit.

21% That’s also the debt-to-income ratio of the average American adult, which means that $2 out of every $10 we earn goes right to paying debt!

30% In order to maintain a good credit score, try to keep your credit utilization ratio (the amount of debt you have versus the total available credit) below this percentage. However, people with excellent scores usually have a utilization ratio around10% or even less!

31% of all Americans (almost a third) have credit scores below 660, the usual cutoff point for sub-prime credit, which means they’ll have trouble getting loans or pay more in interest.

39% of U.S. consumers have at least one credit inquiry from within the prior six months. (3% have had three or more inquiries in that time).

44% A 2015 survey by the American Bankers Association found that 44% of consumers believe that their credit score and credit report are the same thing. Oops!

45 That’s the number of points your credit score will potentially drop if you max out a credit card, even when you haven’t missed a payment!

47% of employers now check a candidate’s credit score during the hiring process, especially with careers in financial services. Reportedly, 1 in 7 applicants is dismissed outright because of their subpar credit score.

51% Out of all consumers with a credit card balance, they’ve used 51% of their available credit limit on average.

56% According to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), 56% of consumers report that they’ve checked their credit reports within the last 12 months.

79% of all consumers have no delinquencies at all on their credit report.

86% of low and middle-income households who incurred expenses resulting from unemployment took on credit card debt as a result.

91% Since most auto insurers now take into account a consumer’s credit score when pricing and issuing their policy, people with bad credit pay an average of 91% more for insurance!

$94 is the average value of a credit card transaction in the U.S.

300 The lowest possible credit score according to the scoring model developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation, or FICO.

644 Georgia holds the dubious honor of having the lowest average credit score among all 50 states.

695 is the average credit score in the U.S. as of 2016.

707 While residents of Minnesota have the highest average credit score for any state in the U.S.

850 The top score possible under FICO’s scoring model.

1956 That was the year engineer Bill Fair and mathematician Earl Isaac founded the Fair Isaac firm, which later became FICO.

$16,368 the average total credit card debt of consumers who have them.

$146,000 is the average amount of debt for each American household.

1,000,0000 That’s the approximate number of Americans with a perfect 850 FICO score, which adds up to about 0.33% (a third of one percent), or one out of every 300 people.

1.8 million financial complaints are registered every year with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other agencies, with 55% of them fraud complaints; 15% identity theft complaints; and 30% other types of complaints.

45 million adults – or about 19% of the population, are considered “credit invisible” according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

$15 trillion. That colossal number is the amount of total household debt Americans now owe if you add up all of our credit cards, auto loans, mortgages and student loans!