Question

Jaina and Tomas are being considered as new tenants in an apartment. The landlord looks at their creditworthiness because he wants to be sure his new tenant pays the rent on time and in full. The table below summarizes the information that was on their applications.

Application information
Questions
Jaina
Tomas
How many years have you had your job?
5
2
What is your monthly salary?
$1,850
$2,500
How many credit cards do you have?
4
1
How much debt do you have?
$13,000
$7,000
How many times were you late with payments on credit cards in the past year?
5
1

Who will the landlord decide to be more creditworthy and why?
Tomas because the ratio of his debt to income is less.
Jaina because she has had her job longer, which makes her look more stable.
Jaina because she has more credit cards available to her.

Answer 1

Tomas — his debt relative to income is much lower and he has far fewer late payments.

Quick comparison: Jaina’s debt/income ≈ 13,000/1,850 ≈ 7.0, Tomas’s ≈ 7,000/2,500 = 2.8. Tomas also has only 1 late payment vs. Jaina’s 5. Those factors (debt burden and payment history) weigh more heavily than job length, so Tomas looks more creditworthy.