Hat tip to Jessica for pointing out this cool interactive from the Federal Reserve which is part of their Credit Access series. We love these resources that have students interact with data. In this series, you will see trends on consumer applications for various types of loans, including auto, credit and home loans. It not only looks at historical data but also measures expectations about these various loan products and gauges financial fragility and the ability of survey respondents to come up with $2,000. 

Here's an example of the types of charts:

What the chart is saying:

• 27% of survey respondents indicated that they applied for a credit card over the last twelve months. Of those who did apply, 17.6% were rejected.  

Questions (all questions can be answered by using this interactive):

• Credit Applications: Which of these loan types do you think has the highest rejection rate: credit cards, auto loans or home loans? Why?
• Credit Applications: Which has a higher rejection rate: application for a credit card or an application for a credit card limit increase?
• Credit Applications: What has been the recent trend with auto loan applications? Rising, falling or staying the same over the past year? 
• Expectations: Why do you think that economists care about expectations and whether consumers expect to take out a loan over the next 12 months? What do you think this might signal about the overall state of the economy? 
• Expectations: Financial Fragility: Do you think there is a relationship between credit score and one's ability to come up with $2,000 in the event of an emergency? 

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For more examples where your students can interact with data, be sure to check out our Interactive Library. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.