Veterans Report More Credit Issues Than Other Consumers, Study Finds
But they are in line with prior research on military service members, which found
that service members have better savings habits, but they have worse spending and credit habits than comparable civilians, said the new study’s author, William Skimmyhorn, an assistant professor of economics at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
One possible culprit behind problems with home loans and credit among service members and veterans is
that unlike civilians, military members are subject to being moved or deployed on short notice, said Paul Kantwill, assistant director of the Office of Servicemember Affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
But at the same time, veterans are more likely than others to have a three-month emergency savings fund, to have a household budget
and to report being satisfied with their financial condition, according to an analysis funded by the Finra Investor Education Foundation, an arm of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the nongovernmental regulator that oversees brokerage firms.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau accepts complaints about mortgages, including those from military members and veterans.
Military veterans are more likely than other consumers to report problems managing credit, to owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth
and to have made a late mortgage payment, a new study of veterans’ finances finds.
