Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Dan Furtado.
Dan Furtado
Good morning.
Skip Falgout
Good morning.
Dan Furtado
Hi. A couple of quick questions for you. Can you give us an update on servicing and payment performance on the portfolio since 10/31. So basically, kind of quarter to date and anecdotally what you are seeing there?
Skip Falgout
Yes, I mean. So far in the third quarter our collections were pretty much what we had expected. In fact our refinances are below expectations. So – and we have actually seen a slight downtick in the 30 plus numbers. So we’re very pleased with the performance after quarter end.
Dan Furtado
And then I know this is probably one of the more comment topics that comes up but gas prices versus unemployment, can you help me think about what has a bigger impact on your portfolio, on the current portfolio?
Skip Falgout
Well I would have to guess it is gas prices because I think it is immediate and we know that that affects every customer. When the price of gasoline rises a $1 a gallon, we know that's (inaudible) pocket book. Our car payments do represent a big portion of our customer’s paycheck and so you know most of our customers are living paycheck to paycheck. So, when they have to gas the car we know that is significant. You know, the unemployment numbers, you know when we sell cars typically we are looking at folks that have steady employment and we are mostly in small town and I think we tend to be less affected by a lot of these big macro issues that you hear about in some of these smaller towns. So, I think the employment numbers tend to hold a little bit more steady.
Hank Henderson
Hi, Dan. I will tell you, regularly Jeff and his team survey the employment numbers in the areas that we are in and we were just looking at it yesterday and surprisingly in a number of the areas employment numbers have actually improved, some they are slightly higher, but still well below the national norms I guess 6.5% right now. So, the areas we are in with one or two exceptions are at or below the national norms. Obviously, those could go up a little bit.
Skip Falgout
And I will go on further, even the couple of areas where they are higher are actually some of our best lots.
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