Two years ago, Luke Bailey had a controversial app idea. It was a dating app called Score for people with good credit.
The app, which launched just a few days before Valentine’s Day, required users to have a credit score of at least 675 to sign up. At the time, Bailey said she created the app to encourage partners to talk more about personal finance. Because doing so is often inconvenient for many people.
“54% of people say their partner’s debt is the reason they are considering divorce,” Bailey told TechCrunch. “Financial compatibility is quietly one of the most important relationship factors, yet no dating platform addresses it directly.”
The app has received quite a bit of criticism and many have actually called it classist since it is an app focused on people who are good with money. Still, the app, which was expected to be available for 90 days, was so popular that Bailey kept it for six months. It gained 50,000 users and made headlines around the world for its premise.
Then it went away and everything in the dating world went back to normal. Until Friday.
Bailey told TechCrunch that he has decided to officially bring Score back. This time for good.
“We originally launched Score to integrate financial responsibility with something people find very important: love,” Bailey said. “When we ended it, we thought the conversation would continue without us. But that wasn’t the case.”
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Instead, he said people kept asking why the company closed. “Scholars have even reached out to study its effects on behavior,” he continued. “It became clear that this wasn’t just a viral moment; it tapped into an unresolved issue in relationship culture.”
This time, Score will be available on the iOS App Store (last time, he said, it was just a mobile app because he and his team created it so quickly). Bailey also said this version of the app will be more inclusive, taking into account feedback that it was too exclusive. “Now anyone can participate.”
There are two tiers: a basic tier that allows anyone to browse and connect without requiring ID or credit verification. Then there is the verified tier where members must verify their ID and credit score to unlock premium features. The app uses Equifax to verify both your identity and credit score, and you consent to the app. It only does what Bailey describes as a soft pull, so it doesn’t affect your credit.
“We don’t store full credit reports or sensitive personal and financial data. We only receive confirmation that someone meets verified criteria,” he said.
Verified plans include features that allow people to see other members nearby, see who has saved profiles, send video introductions to potential matches, and send messages before users swipe back.
He remains optimistic about the use of credit scores, saying they are a measure of consistency rather than a measure of wealth. “Banks look for the same things in customers that we look for in relationships: consistency and reliability,” he said. “Dating apps measure churn. We measure churn and accountability.”
Bailey said the app doesn’t store sensitive data, doesn’t sell personal data, and uses encrypted infrastructure to secure everything.
The last iteration of Score accumulated a lot of data about its users, helping to show how each generation was influenced by socioeconomic factors. For example, millennial men’s credit scores were found to be about 11% higher than women’s. But for Gen Z, the gap was much smaller, with men having 3% higher credit scores.
“We will see how that data evolves,” he said.
Originally, Score was only tested in the U.S., but this time, he said, he plans to expand globally, starting with Canada. He said some partnerships should also be looked at.
“Financial behavior is one of the strongest predictors of life stability,” Bailey said. “We believe that compatibility algorithms should reflect this.”
