Those with Lower Credit Scores More Likely to Rate Taxes One of Top Three Issues
Taxes aren’t important just one day of the year. A recent poll has found that voters want a presidential candidate who will focus the rhetoric on the piece of their paychecks going to Washington every payday. But how important that is as an issue may depend on your credit status.
In late March 2016, Credit Karma surveyed more than 1,000 members about the upcoming presidential election to pinpoint the issues important to them and determine if preferences varied by credit rating. While many factors can affect credit scores and political decisions, some trends emerged.
Credit Karma discovered an overwhelming majority of voters (78%) believed taxes are one of the most important issues in the election. It was the number three concern overall behind only healthcare and Social Security, but its importance varied with credit scores.
Highlights:
- Taxes were consistently in the top three most important issues among Credit Karma members with credit scores under 750.
- Only healthcare and Social Security were more important.
- Credit Karma members with credit scores under 700 were most focused on taxes. Four out of five ranked taxes as either very or extremely important.
- Credit Karma members with Excellent credit, however, did not find taxes to be as important. Fewer than three out of four of these respondents felt taxes were either very or extremely important.
- Excellent credit voters believed defense spending, foreign policy, Social Security and healthcare were more important, ranking these as much as 12 points higher.
- Voters with the highest credit were the only group of Credit Karma members that believed defense spending was more important than taxes.
About Credit Karma
With more than 50 million members (nearly one in four Americans with a credit profile), Credit Karma has unique insights into American households. Alongside free credit scores and reports, Credit Karma offers its members friendly, personalized information to help each of them understand and make the most of their individual situation.
Methodology
From late March to early April, Credit Karma surveyed 1,018 Credit Karma members to identify the political issues they were most likely to prioritize when considering a presidential candidate. Issues were ranked on a five-point scale from “not at all important” to “extremely important.” We identified the top issues by calculating the percentage of responses in the two highest points on the scale (“very important” and “extremely important”).
Credit score data is based on TransUnion VantageScore 3.0 credit scores pulled by Credit Karma members from late March to early April 2016. Aggregate level results have a maximum 3.07% margin of error at a 95% confidence level. Quotas were implemented to ensure results reflect the U.S. demographic by age group according to the most recent Census report. Research was conducted using the Qualtrics Insights platform. All data was aggregated and anonymized.