Should dating apps mingle with credit scores?

If you’re on the market for more than just an equity fundraise, maybe you’ve already heard about Score, the newest dating app to enter the scene. Hard launched by Neon Money Club, a consumer-focused financial platform and “financial community” with unspecified membership tiers, the app is designed to connect singles possessing a certain je ne sais quoi—a credit score of 675 or above, that is. 

Before you unleash a barrage of Black Mirror references or point to China’s social credit system as a harbinger of dystopianism “over here” in reference to the app’s jarring social implications, Neon Money Club’s leaders have probably heard it before—and decided to launch their app anyway. 

“We need to take the conversation to areas where finance isn’t traditionally discussed,” said Luke Bailey, Neon Money Club’s Co-Founder and CEO, in an interview with TechCrunch. “Before you can educate people, you need to get their attention. With Score, we’re bringing the conversation to dating.”

The product’s launch, in other words, is a guerrilla marketing-esque attempt to bolster financial awareness and catalyze conversations around money through romance and intrigue. Like that one summer fling you still think about from time to time, Score will only be available for 90 days before disappearing. 

There’s certainly plenty to discuss in terms of the ethics surrounding this app. Is excluding whole swaths of people from a platform really the most equitable or effective way to start conversations around money? What racist effects might using a credit score as a fickle proxy for wealth and eligibility bring about, especially when FICO incorporates ZIP codes—reinforcing redlining—into its quantifying algorithms? 

But it’s also prudent to question how different this app is or is not from existing dating apps, which already financialize romance. Some, like The League and Raya, center their branding around their invite-only nature. Others like Tinder have launched $500-a-month paid membership tiers. In that respect, it’s hard to think of dating apps as a space where finance isn’t traditionally discussed; if anything, it’s one of the most overtly wealth-driven spaces that millions of users encounter every day. 

Score is probably little more than a conspicuous consumption wolf wearing education sheep’s clothing—while also building out a pipeline of potential users for Neon Money Club’s branded Amex.