(NEXSTAR) — Few things on your credit report can affect your credit score like having an account in collections. As Experian explains, this record of a defaulted debt will typically remain on your credit report for seven years from the first missed payment, and per some recent data, it appears many Texans are in danger of major credit score dings.
Recently, financial resource and news outlet WalletHub released its analysis of 100 major U.S. cities to find out which ones were struggling the most in 2025. To do this, WalletHub measured cities across metrics like average number of accounts in collections, average balances, and how much each figure changed between Q1 and Q2 of this year.
And unfortunately, several Texas cities came out on the very top for accounts in collection nationwide.
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Garland, located northeast of Dallas, was found to be the U.S. city where residents have the most accounts in collection. Garland, which has a population of 246,018 as of 2020’s Census, saw an average increase of collection accounts of 3.4% between Q1 and Q2 2025, per the data. WalletHub financial writer Adam McCann explains this is the 13th-highest increase in the U.S. for the same time period…