Survey: Millennial Women of Color Are Outperforming Their White Peers When It Comes To Credit

Some millennials are having an especially hard time navigating the credit system today but, according to a survey, millennial women of color are outperforming white women when it comes to credit.

Five thousand adults were used in the survey, which found that half of the millennial women have negative feelings about their credit score and nearly one-third have had a bad overall experience with credit. Forty-eight percent of millennial women say they don’t enjoy using a credit card and 32% say they don’t have a healthy relationship with their credit card.

Within this group of millennial women, the survey shows women of color (WOC) are doing better with credit than their white peers.

Forty-three percent of WOC reported having a good or excellent credit score (640-850), compared to 35% of white millennials. Additionally, more white millennial women (30%) have a poor/very poor credit score compared to millennial WOC (18%).

The survey also found millennial WOC are more likely to say their credit score helps them (44%) than their white peers (36%). More WOC also report having a better experience with credit overall and fewer WOC are ashamed of their credit score than their white peers.

While these numbers look promising for WOC, when looking beyond credit scores, WOC are still struggling with their finances. More than 60% of WOC are living check-to-check and 24% say they can’t keep up with their bills.

Additionally, more than 40% of millennial WOC find it difficult to access credit and WOC are significantly less likely to be pre-approved for their first credit card.

One thing the survey does not mention is the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on women. Before the virus put the world into an economic shutdown, women earned less, had less in savings, and had less access to social protection.

Since the pandemic has hit, women have been let go from their jobs more than men and more women have had to quit their job due to childcare. According to the Center for American Progress, without immediate and long-term action to shore up childcare infrastructure and establish better work-family policies, the U.S. cannot achieve consistent economic growth nor protect and advance gender equality.