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Sarasota residents are among the best in Florida at managing credit card debt, according to a recent index created by SmartAsset, a personal finance technology company.
The firm's inaugural credit card debt index ranked nearly 3,100 counties nationwide, and most Gulf Coast counties compared favorably (the top score is 100). “Scores with 90s and 80s are good,” says AJ Smith, SmartAsset's managing editor and vice president of content.
On the Gulf Coast, Sarasota came out on top, with an index of 90.44. Charlotte and Collier counties followed close behind, with 89.8 and 87.52, respectively. Hillsborough County had the lowest score in the index, at 71.73.
To determine the index, the firm used credit card debt as a percentage of income and as a percentage of wealth. The lower the ratios of debt to income and wealth, the higher the index.
SmartAsset gave greater weight to the ratio of credit card debt to wealth because it measures personal finance more broadly. That gives some Florida counties with higher percentages of retirees an edge because those residents may have more wealth but less income since they're no longer working. That would partially explain the high scores in Sarasota, Charlotte and Collier counties.
Nationally, the ratio of credit card debt to income is 11.3% and the ratio of credit card debt to wealth is 10%, Smith says. In Florida, those ratios are 13.8% and 11.1%.
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