Photo credit: City of Beverly Hills

March 3. Nice job, Cornelius! Collectively, 28031 has a higher credit score than Beverly Hills 90210. So says a new national survey of more than 2,500 cities and towns across the country.

With an aggregate credit score of 740, we beat not just Beverly Hills (722), but Huntersville (736) and Concord (675), according to WalletHub, which compared the median credit scores as of September 2020, based on TransUnion data.

Beverly Hills vs. Cornelius, NC.

Our populations are about the same: 33,792 in Beverly Hills, 30,257 in Cornelius.

Median value owner-occupied home: $2 million+ in Beverly Hills, $322,400 in Cornelius.

People living in poverty: 8.3 percent in Beverly Hills; 7.6 percent in Cornelius.

Source: US Census Quick Fact 2019

To read the WalletHub credit rating study, click here.

Best advice

The fastest way to increase your credit score is to improve your “utilization rate”. There are only two ways to do this – pay down your outstanding balances to as low as possible and/or call your credit card company and ask them if they would consider increases the amount of your available credit. That will impact your credit score quickly. Of course, you should double-check your credit report to ensure there are no errors on your report. Remember errors accrue for many reasons; family members with the same or similar names, stolen identities, or even medical bills that were never sent to your insurance company.

—Ann M. Holmes
Assistant Dean, College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
University of Maryland