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Geisinger announces plan to hire more than 150 nurses in Wilkes-Barre, Scranton

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Work begins in Solomon Creek wall

<p>When it comes to credit card debt, Hazleton residents aren&#8217;t nearly as bad as Wilkes-Barre, Wilkes-Barre denizens aren&#8217;t as indebted as Scranton&#8217;s, and nobody in the country is worse than folks in West Chester.</p><p>WalletHub, the financial planning website that promises to &#8220;help you reach WalletFitness,&#8221; looked at the average credit card balance as of October last year for 2,537 U.S. cities, and estimated how much it would cost someone in that city to pay off the debt, as well as how many months it would take based partly on the city&#8217;s average income.</p><p>Because some data &#8212; particularly average income &#8212; varies from city to city in the calculations, having the highest average balance didn&#8217;t necessarily get the worst ranking. Having high interest and financing fees and a high number of months to pay off the debt mattered more.</p><p>Each city was ranked in a percentile. The higher the percentile, the worse the debt. West Chester topped the list with an average balance of $6,926, costing $10,535 to pay off over 192 months. That put West Chester in the 99th percentile, but it shared that distinction with 35 other cities.</p><p>Locally, Scranton was in the 84th percentile, with an average balance of $5,170 taking 59 months to pay off, including interest and fees of $2,023. Wilkes-Barre wasn&#8217;t too far behind, in the 83rd percentile with an average balance of $4,984 estimated to take the same amount of time (59 months) to pay off, but with a lower cost of $1,950.</p><p>Hazleton residents had the best regional rating, standing in the 63rd percentile with an average balance of $4,413 paid off in 49 months with a cost of $1,414.</p><p>Statewide, Whitehall, near Allentown, had the best rating, landing in the third percentile with an average balance of $4,947, but paid off in 27 months to keep cost down to $854.</p><p>And the city where residents do the best job of handling credit card debt: Cupertino, Calif., where they really do know the way to San Jose (immediately east) and to San Francisco (43 miles north).</p><p>Cupertino had a fairly high average balance of $5,056, but residents could pay it off in 10 months at a cost of $332.</p><p>You can look at the entire rankings &#8212; no credit card necessary &#8212; at <a href="https://wallethub.com/credit-card-calculator/" target="_blank">wallethub.com</a>.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Report: Area residents deeper in debt than many others