In spite of our modern "sameness", most people will tell you that men and women deal with their money very differently. And depending on which gender you are, there's a chance that you might think YOUR gender handles money more responsibly than the other!
I'm not here to judge but I would like to report on a very interesting finding in a recent poll. VantageScore did a poll in April 2013 in which they asked men and women about their credit.
The report found the following things during their poll that women know more about credit scores than men. Here are some highlights from their findings:
•When asked about age and marital status, fewer women believe those were factors in determining credit score than men. (38 percent of women versus 48 percent of men incorrectly believe that age is a factor; 34 percent of women versus 46 percent of men incorrectly believe that marital status is a factor). The truth: Age and marital status are NOT factors in determining credit scores.
•More women than men know that credit bureaus collect the information for scores. (74 percent of women versus 68 percent of men).
•When asked what a good credit score is, 35 percent of women (versus 29 percent of men) knew what a good score was.);
•More women than men know when scores are free (65 percent of women versus 60 percent of men) and when lenders are required to disclose scores (53 percent of women versus 46 percent of men).
One of the statistics that made me very happy was that a majority of both genders knew the importance of checking credit reports. The women still won out in this question but the answer was close (77 percent of women versus 72 percent of men). Remember: Check your credit reports regularly!
There was one area where the gender split was reversed: Men turned out to be more skeptical than women about credit repair agencies. It turns out that 40 percent of women are more trusting and believe that these companies are always or usually helpful.
What can we learn from this poll? Well, I don't want to speculate about why women have a higher level of accurate credit knowledge than men but we can learn that there is still a lot of misinformation out there -- among both men and women -- and it is incumbent upon all of us to work hard to master our own credit by becoming informed.
(And boys, you have some catching up to do!)
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