Wait, Is My Bad Credit Score Keeping Me from Getting a Boyfriend?

Dating apps are plentiful, with special editions for particular religious faiths, age segments, farmers, you name it. But we were surprised to find that now, credit scores have entered the chat. Women on TikTok are boasting about getting lots of dates when they noted their high credit score in their dating profile. We brushed that off as an isolated Pick Me! stunt, until we heard about Score, a new dating app that uses credit scores as a secret weapon in creating successful matches. 

It works like this—to sign up for Score, you enter your name, birthdate and address, as well as the last four digits of your social security number, into the app, which then conducts a soft credit check on you. (That means that the credit check itself won’t affect your credit, as sometimes happens when you’re making big purchases.) Only applicants with a credit score higher than 675 are accepted into the dating pool—so the theory is that everyone you meet on the app has good credit. (Note: Not to quibble, but credit rating agency Experian says 700 is the minimum for a good score, not 675. Perhaps Score could more accurately be called the “not bad” credit score dating app, which doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.)

As an experiment, I signed up myself, and was disappointed not to find out what my exact score was, instead just getting the green light to continue my registration by adding a photo and an introductory sentence. The experience was unsettling, since my credit isn’t always over 700—was this extra layer of judgment even a good idea? Were people of the dating world falling in love constantly, only to be left shattered at the altar when Standard & Poor’s said they’d paid Amex late one month too many?

According to a dating expert we spoke with, there’s a better approach than credit scores to meeting a partners. Connell Barrett is a dating coach for men and host of the Dating Transformation podcast. He wrote a book called Dating Sucks, But You Don’t: The Modern Guy’s Guide to Total Confidence, Romantic Connection and Finding the Perfect Partner. And he works one-on-one with clients, so we thought he’d be in favor of anything that makes dating matches easier—but he was bearish on Score. 

“A high credit score would be a way to impress somebody with your financial ability and that’s okay, but you don’t want to lead with it,” says Barrett. “Dating is two people who find out they are romantic and emotional matches, getting to know the other person, not their credit score.” Further, in Barrett’s opinion, Score is a business that’s using an app to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. “Mis-matched credit scores are not the issue,” he says. “Loneliness is a problem, and dating app fatigue is a problem.” Barrett suggests taking extra care in crafting your Hinge profile as a better investment in your time.

Still, it takes two to tango, and let’s say you’ve been burned by a partner’s financial shenanigans previously. We understand the logic of screening out people with less-than-stellar financial histories. Potentially, this could result in a more serious-minded dating pool—but even the app designers seem unsure of this, since the project is reportedly running for a limited 90-day window, at least initially.

And though Barrett acknowledges that money matters do come up in the dating world, he suggests waiting until you determine if you even like the person before you start asking them for the last four digits of their social. “If you’re not financially stable, that’s something to work on,” Barrett says. “You want to have a plan you’re working on, whatever that is, maybe you’re in college. Anyone is attracted to a man or woman with a plan they can mention and focus on—ambition is attractive, just take the right action.” The dating coach says that even if you’re in financial straits, you’ll gain self-esteem from working on fixing the problem, which in turn will be a positive feedback loop to making you more attractive to potential dates. 

In summary: While we see the logic in a dating app that screens candidates by credit score, we’ll be working on our profiles and our own financial mojo, and keep the dating to the fun stuff, at least at first.