Poll: Millennials Know Less than Others About Credit Scores

Millennials know less about credit scores than other American adults, a survey from the Consumer Federation of America and VantageScore Solutions shows.

Adults were asked to pick out which entities -- cellphone companies, landlords, home insurers, credit card issuers, mortgage lenders and electric utility companies -- use credit scores. The correct answer is that all of those entities may use credit scores in judging consumers -- which only 18% of millennials knew. Other adult respondents were about twice as likely to get the right answer.

The same knowledge gap applied to other credit scoring matters. Only 65% of millennials realized that the three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) collect information on which the scores are based; 75% of older Americans knew the statement was true. Only 47% of millennials knew that age is not a factor in calculating scores; more than 60% of those 45-64 years old knew that was the case.

In the survey, which was fielded by ORC International, millennials were categorized as adults under the age of 35. A national sample of 1,004 adults was taken by cellphone or landline from April 17-19, 2014. There was a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.