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Would You Ask Your Date for His Credit Score?

credit scoreA Bankrate survey from last March showed four out of ten adults believe that knowing a person’s credit score would impact their interest in dating them. If this number is shocking, keep reading. This article might convince you that 4/10 is way, way too low.

Overall Financial Health

Credit scores are a great snapshot of a person’s overall financial health since they measure debt balances and timeliness of payments. A person with a low credit score is someone who either has a lot of debt or has been careless with paying his bills. Neither of those is attractive in a date.

Financially responsible people ought to be looking for financial responsible partners. When you ask your date for his credit score, consider his reaction. If he’s nervous about telling you, chances are his score isn’t great. Some people are alright with dating a person who has debt or poor financial habits. If you aren’t (because, say, you like not paying someone else’s debts), you really ought to ask what your date’s credit score is.

In this hotly debated topic, some people say you should immediately leave if the person doesn’t know his credit score. That’s a bit extreme… as long as he promises to get a copy and is upfront about it, don’t worry. But do make sure he tells you ASAP.

Saves you time if he’s a financial disaster

You might think “hey, we’re only dating, what does it matter anyway?” That’s a very poor attitude to take when dating! If you’re dating a person, there’s a greater than not chance you’re looking to have a long-term relationship with this person. Know yourself before you get into a relationship. If you are financial sound and want a partner who is financially sound, don’t waste your time dating a financial disaster and trying to fix his financial well-being.

In fact, the New York Post ran a story in August about a woman who won’t date anyone with a credit score below 700. Her reasoning is that since she can take care of herself financially she wants someone who can do the same. In other words, bad credit score = GTFO.

Shows you he can take care of himself

Financial responsibility carries over into so many other parts of your life. A person who can’t keep track of his bills and debts and isn’t taking steps to improve his financial well-being likely has bigger issues than a poor credit score.

A poor credit score can also affect his ability to rent a safe, warm and affordable apartment or to buy a house. It can impact his future interest rates or make it harder for him to get a bank account or a job or a car. Credit plays such an important role in today’s world that a person who starts out life with poor credit will see its effect snowball as time goes on. You don’t want to date someone like that. Ask for his credit score.

So Should You Do It??

Given the importance of a date’s credit score and the fact that it’s indicative of whether or not a person can take care of himself, asking for a date’s credit score shouldn’t be taboo. In fact, talking about money in general shouldn’t be taboo but alas, that isn’t the world we live in.

Instead, we play a guessing game and hope that even if our date is bad at money that we’ll be able to “fix” it or “help” him. Rather than cutting our losses ASAP and moving on, we continue dating financially incompatible people simply because we don’t know that we’re financially incompatible. I would never hesitate to tell my date my credit score and neither should he!

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1 Comment

  • No way. I think of this as asking someone their ‘number’. It can be asked eventually but you have to get to know the person first and by the time you actually ask, chances are you know them well enough that you have a pretty good idea of what the answer will be.

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