First comes love … then comes a credit check. For many singles, bad credit can be a deal breaker when it comes to finding love. About 30% of women and 20% of men say they won’t marry a person with a low credit score, according to a survey from FreeCreditScore.com that polled 1,000 adults.
Most respondents also said money management skills are just as important as looks when deciding whether someone is worth pursuing. This is especially true for women, with nearly all female respondents ranking financial responsibility and financial compatibility as more important or just as important as career ambition, physical attraction and sex and intimacy, the survey found.
Male respondents said financial savvy is just as important as physical attraction, slightly less important than sex and intimacy and much more important than career ambition. While 57% of men say that credit scores play into their dating decisions, a staggering 75% of women said they consider the numerical rating. Credit scores are calculated based on your payment history, amount owed, the types of credit you have and the number of years that credit has been available to you.
Linda Basloe, a 57-year-old from Herkimer, N.Y., with excellent credit, said she won’t even give a man her digits until she knows his credit score. “I definitely consider bad credit a deal breaker,” she said. “I wouldn’t even consider someone in that situation — the joke about me has always been ‘to please fill out a credit application and I will consider [you].'”Why such concern over this magic number? Respondents said they worry that a partner with bad credit could hurt their prospects for qualifying for home loans, auto loans or lower interest rates and they’d be irresponsible about handling joint finances. Basloe said she has worked hard to achieve financial independence and doesn’t want a relationship with someone financially irresponsible to ruin that. But no matter how important it may be, it can be an awkward topic to broach.
Roughly half of the survey respondents have talked about their credit score with a romantic interest, with 39% discussing it during the first year of a relationship, 21% bringing it up before committing to a relationship and 19% comparing scores before moving in together. A mere 1% discussed their scores on a first date.
Source: CNN/Money
