Is A Bad Credit Score A Dating Deal Breaker?

Surveys are designed to show a cause-and-effect relationship. Some surveys are the master of the obvious, making one wonder why time and money was invested in the first place. Then there are the surveys that just leave you scratching your head.

Apparently, a bad credit score is also bad for your dating life and can even affect marriage potential.

According to a CNN Money report, 75 percent of woman and 57 percent of men consider a person’s credit score as criteria for dating. The survey goes on to say that 30 percent of women and 20 percent of men won’t marry someone with a lower credit score.

Love is a complex thing. Who would have thought that credit scoring agencies such as TransUnion, Equifax and Experian could determine your dating/marriage destiny?

I don’t put much stock in surveys. Besides, according to statistics, this would theoretically only apply to a smaller percentage of the population, since the majority of Americans don’t qualify for good credit score status. Regardless, there is no need to live with a low credit score when there are steps you can take to improve it.

Before we get started, you need to know one important thing about credit score improvement. First, your credit score is not broken, and is not in need of fixing by a credit repair company. You can improve your score on your own. There is no magic formula that a credit repair company can tell you. Keep your good hard money, learn the ins and outs of credit scoring and take care of it yourself.

For the purposes of this article, I am going to give you a basic outline to show you that this is not rocket science. For more info, take me up on my free special offer that you will find at the end of this article.

Categorize the Items on your Credit Report

There are three types of items on your credit report. There are items that are correct. There are items that are incorrect. There are items that are in error.

Correct items, whether they are positive or negative, remain on the credit report. Incorrect items can be disputed and removed. Misinformation simply needs to be corrected. The bottom line is that you want all information, whether good or bad, to be correct on your credit report.

Disputing Information

Once you have categorized everything, you want to deal with the incorrect information first. You need to get it removed, as well any incorrect misinformation. To do so, you dispute the information with the credit reporting agency.

There are three credit agencies: TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. It is important to note that the item that you are disputing might be reported by 1 or all 3 credit reporting agencies. You only need to dispute with one. If the one credit reporting agency agrees with your dispute, they will make sure that the item is corrected or removed from the records of the other credit reporting agencies.

Each credit reporting agency has their own preferred way of disputing information. For a detailed look at how each agency works, see my special free offer at the end of the article.

Other Credit Scoring Ideas

We want good information on your credit report. You want any negative information removed as soon as you can through the dispute process. How do you know when it can be removed? Every negative piece of information has to serve its time on your credit report. With the exception of bankruptcies and judgments, most items must remain on your credit report for 7 ½ years past the first event that.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you have an account that has gone into default. At one point, that account was in good standing. Something happened to make that account go into default. It typically is a missed payment. The missed payment is the starting date for the entire process. You take that date, and add 7 ½ years to it. After that, you can dispute that item and request to have it removed.

Beyond that, the key to building a good credit score is positive credit activity and reducing debt.

High levels of debt, which max out credit limits or come close to those limits, are very negative. The more unused credit limits you have, the better your score. Positive credit activity is using that credit card each month, and paying it off in full.

If you want a more detailed look at improving your credit score, take advantage of my free offer.  I want to send you a copy of the chapter in my book, Deceptive Money, on credit scoring.  It has literally everything that you need to know about credit scoring in more detail.  You will only find this article and free offer as exclusive content of Single Matters. This offer is not going out to anyone else.

Have you joined Single Matters FREE membership program yet? To see the rest of the instructions for getting the chapter in Deceptive Money, sign up by clicking here and fill out a short form with your email address. Once you become a member, you will have access to the rest of this article with the information you need to download the chapter in Deceptive Money.

All you have to do is send me an email at bob@prudentmoney.com. In return, all that I ask is that you like the Prudent Money Facebook page and share this article with your friends.

If you have any questions about credit scoring, you can also email me at Ask Bob and I will help you as much as I can through email.