Impatient People Tend to Have Worse Credit Scores, Study Suggests

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Impatience can lead to many problems like extra stress, high blood pressure and a quick temper. A new study suggests you can add a poor credit score to the list.

People that are more impatient tend to have worse credit scores than patient people, according to a recent study out of Columbia and Stanford Universities.

For this study, the organizers asked 437 test participants if they would rather have a small payment today or a larger payment in a month.

A person that chose the immediate payment was rated impatient, while someone that chose the delayed payment was rated patient.

The study organizers controlled their test group for income and debt levels, so these weren’t factors that influenced a participant’s decision.

“People that are more impatient

tend to have worse credit scores.”

To measure different levels of patience, the study organizers altered the gap between amounts.

For example, one person may have had to choose between $20 and $30 but another may have had to choose between $20 and $50.

As a group, participants that chose the delayed payment averaged a credit score 30 points higher than the group that chose the immediate payment.

Participants that were the most impatient, meaning they accepted the biggest price discount, had an average credit score below 620, putting them in the subprime borrower category.

If you happen to be a subprime category, don’t get too stressed out — there are plenty of lenders willing to offer you loans despite your bad credit.

This study makes sense because impatience could lead to poor credit habits.

An impatient person would be more inclined to be late on making credit payments, as this decision leads to more money today versus waiting for a good credit score sometime in the future.

This just goes to show patience is a virtue with many benefits. Learning how to wait can help your health, your relationships and your wallet.

Source: Columbia and Stanford Universities.

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