A controversial dating app uses credit scores to create matches

Just when you thought the outcry against dating app culture couldn’t get any louder, an old app returns to remind us that there truly is no floor.

Enter Score, an app that was first launched back in 2024 by a financial services company looking to promote greater openness about personal finances. To qualify for Score membership, users had to prove they had a credit score of 675 or above, and that gimmick somehow garnered them north of 50,000 active users.

According to a recent interview with TechCrunch, Score founder Luke Bailey is eager to relaunch the app. There is already a Score website where you can sign up for the waiting list and discover their new tagline: "Dating For People With Good Credit."

In the new-and-improved Score, inclusivity is the focus. The app will offer two membership tiers: a general-access membership for everyone and a higher tier for members who are willing to verify their credit scores. Doing so unlocks more quality-of-life features, including the ability to send video introductions or message people who haven’t already swiped to talk to you. 

Score is teaming up with Equifax to handle both credit and ID verification, prompting tech-savvy critics to raise privacy concerns. But according to a press release, Bailey doesn’t believe there’s anything inherently superficial about using a credit score as a proxy for dating value.

"We look at credit not as a measure of wealth, but as a reflection of consistency and reliability. Most dating platforms measure attrition," says Bailey in the press release. "We measure reliability alongside compatibility." The general idea being that someone who doesn’t shirk their regular credit card payments is also less likely to ghost their dating app matches.

The timing of the Score launch is also inauspicious, as younger Americans are simultaneously experiencing a credit crunch and a weakening job market comparable to the 2008 financial crisis, with average credit scores falling at a faster rate than at any time since 2009. The bet that Score is making is that, in a search for financial stability, users might re-prioritize the credit-worthiness of their potential partners, but it’s just as likely that young people will view this move as yet another crass attempt to harvest user data under the guise of offering a worthwhile service. 

Finally, the app's underlying thesis deserves some scrutiny. Are credit-worthy people also inherently more reliable in dating? Does a missed credit card payment suggest a flaky personality, or someone likely to forget to return a phone call or remember a birthday? We suspect the market will supply the answer to those questions.