Heard on the Street: Rochester has second highest average credit score

Rochester has the second highest average credit score in the nation, after Mankato, according to Experiean's 2015 State of Credit annual report.

For example, people in the northern Midwest have historically had high average credit scores. Low average credit scores are common in Southern and Western states.

Four of the 10 cities with the highest average credit scores are in Minnesota, according to Experian's report. The figures are based on consumer data in the Experian-Oliver Wyman Market Intelligence Reports from the second quarter of this year. It provides an in-depth look at credit characteristics in more than 100 metropolitan statistical areas.

On average, U.S. consumers have a 669 credit score on the VantageScore 3.0 scale (300 to 850), which is up 3 points from last year.

The biggest factors that determine a consumer's credit scores are payment history and amount of debt relative to credit limit, so people who make loan payments on time and use very little of their credit cards' available credit tend to have great credit scores.

Here are the 10 MSAs with the highest average credit scores (score averages are rounded to the nearest whole number):

1. Mankato, Minn. — 706

2. Rochester, Minn. — 705

3. Minneapolis, Minn. — 704

4. Fargo, N.D. — 701

5. Wausau, Wis. — 701

6. Duluth, Minn. — 701

7. Sioux Falls, S.D. — 700

8. Green Bay, Wis. — 700

9. La Crosse, Wis. — 699

10. Cedar Rapids, Iowa — 699

— Staff reports