Why the only thing you need on your dating profile is your credit score
Your credit score may not be a particularly sexy bit of personal data – but it could dictate more about your love life than you think.
That's according to research published by the US Federal Reserve Board, anyway, which found that not only do people with better credit scores tend to commit to relationships for longer – but also that the more similar your credit score is to your partner's, the more romantically suited to them you are likely to be.
Three economists tracked the credit records of millions of US consumers over 15 years, and found that "individuals in committed relationships have credit scores that are highly correlated with their partners' scores".
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The average credit score of people when they formed a committed relationship was 660 – lower than the overall average of 680, which the researchers suggested reflected "the younger-than-average age of those forming committed relationships".
"The within-couple correlation coefficient is about 0.6, implying significant positive assortative matching with respect to credit scores at the time of relationship formation."
The researchers concluded credit scores have "become a prominent characteristic of individuals that extends to areas outside the household finance sector".
"Couples with larger score gaps at the beginning of their relationship are more likely to subsequently separate.
"While we [found] that part of such a correlation is attributable to poorly matched couples’ lower chances of using joint credit accounts, acquiring new credit, and staying away from financial distress, the mismatch in credit scores seems to be important for relationship outcomes beyond these credit channels."
We love it when economists talk dirty…