Hi y’all —
Happy Almost-Valentine's Day! I hope you know that every issue of Dollar Scholar is actually a love letter, because I adore you.
What I don't adore? Online dating. It has many flaws, not least of which is the fact that people choose to put weird stuff on their profiles. I'm talking pictures of fish, outdated references to The Office and not-so-humble brags about their credit scores.
Yes, really: It's a legit trend for folks to share their credit scores on Tinder, Hinge and the like, usually by posting a screenshot from FICO alongside the requisite photo with a baby and photo with a dog. But while the latter two indicate you're good with kids and love animals, respectively, boasting about your TransUnion 810 prooobably doesn't send the message you think it does.
Then again, I'm single, so what do I know? Maybe I'm in the wrong here. Should you put your credit score on your dating profiles?
"It's not something I would ever let one of my clients do," says Eric Resnick, an online dating and profile writing expert.
Quick reminder: A credit score is a three-digit number from 300 to 850 used by lenders to evaluate a prospective borrower's credit worthiness, or likelihood of paying them back. Credit scores are usually based on factors like payment history, debt levels, length of credit history and mix of accounts.
In that sense, it's conceivable someone would want to share their credit score on their dating profile in order to convey their financial savviness (and vet that of others), says Sarah Darr, head of financial planning at U.S. Bank.
"It's important to understand and end up in a relationship with someone who shares the same values, lifestyles and habits [as you]," she adds. A credit score on your profile can demonstrate your financial priorities: "You're trying to say 'it's important to me and I've worked hard at this,' because earning a strong credit score is not something that happens overnight."
Research backs this up. A 2015 study from the Federal Reserve found that people in committed relationships tend to have credit scores that are "highly correlated" with their partners', and couples with bigger score gaps at the beginning of their relationship are more likely to break up than those with smaller gaps. The higher their credit scores, the more likely folks were to get, and stay, together.
But a high credit score doesn't tell the full story of someone's financial history.
Not only do credit scores vary depending on which entity is calculating them, but they also leave folks without thick credit files — aka loans — at a disadvantage, all but forcing consumers to take on debt if they want to appear "worthy." (In fact, often credit scores go DOWN when someone pays off a big loan.)
