His and Her Credit Scores

[Writer21]

I've heard that men generally have lower credit scores than women. Is this true. I know that my credit score happens to be lower than my wife's, yet we both have the same amount of outstanding debt. So why is it she has a higher credit score?

If you have an answer, or even an idea of why this is the case, I'd love to hear it.

[Admin]

I don't think there is any solid scientific evidence to back up the claim. However, a recent research conducted in the UK revealed that women are generally more worried about their debts than men are. You can read the article here: http://money.uk.msn.com/Specials/Cre...umentid=143436

On a personal level, I can agree with this research because among all my couple friends, I have noticed that the women are usually the ones to handle all of their finances. Also, I tend to think that women are more thrifty when it comes to shopping and finding deals.

On a different note, I think it is commonplace to find that couples with the same tradelines and debts have varying credit scores.

How is this possible? Well, for one thing, credit scores are derived using complex algorithms. These algorithms may take into account your spending behaviors as well as your past credit history. Also, I think it is safe to assume that no two people have the same exact credit history; such as tradelines, credit limits, and activity dates. You have to remember that your individual credit score has existed long before your marriage.

I like to think of the credit report as your personal finance life story; pages are turned and new chapters are added.

[Marik]

Four reasons your credit score could be a surprise:
1 You haven’t borrowed enough in the past.
2 You don’t fit the profile for the particular lender or the type of credit you asked for.
3 There are too many recent searches on your credit report.
4 You had problems years ago

[justcallmebroke]

The FICO Pie Chart may help to explain why your wife's credit is better than yours.

My credit score is slightly higher than my hubby's. I think it's because his name is on the mortgage and mine isn't.

[Lisa Marie]

My hubby's credit score is higher than mine, but i made it that way. Basically, I took the "sacrifice" to get his score higher when it was coming time to refinance our house from an adjustable rate mortgage. Since he makes more money, his credit score would be the one the mortgage companies go by. My money doesn't even count because i'm self employed and have only been so for 1.5 years. It's sad, but true--plus I think that mortgage companies look for eery possible way to charge you more money.

[justcallmebroke]

Lisa, I hear ya on the 'credit sacrifice'. Because I'm self-employed, don't earn a lot of money, and hubby's name is on just about everything, I couldn't even get a rinky-dink store credit card when I tried to. I was mortified!

[fred333]

Thanks for the pie chart, it helped a lot.