Looking to find love? You've got to have a good credit score.

Apparently a potential lover's credit score has now become even more important than their job or them sharing the same interests and hobbies.

According to a recent New York Times study, websites like Creditscoredating.com claim that "Good Credit Is Sexy". Even relationship counselors and dating site executives say that they are hearing more concerns about credit in a relationship more than ever before.

Manisha Thakor, the CEO and founder of financial advisory firm MoneyZen Wealth Management, even goes as far to comparing bad credit with having a STD.

"Credit scores are like the dating equivalent of a sexually transmitted disease test," she told the New York Times. "It's a shorthand way to get a sense of someone's financial past the same way an S.T.D. test gives some information about a person's sexual past."

The paper interviewed more than 50 American daters under the age of 40 and found that a low credit score is quickly becoming a deal breaker for people looking for love.

Jessica LaShawn, a 31-year-old flight attendant from Chicago, said she had been on a great date with a tall financier who "had great teeth," when the romantic evening came to an abrupt end after he "asked a decidedly unromantic question: 'What's your credit score?'"

After answering honestly, all bets were off.

"It was as if the music stopped. It was really awkward because he kept telling me that I was the perfect girl for him, but that a low credit score was his deal-breaker," she said.

Lauren Dollard can attest. The 26-year-old assistant at a nonprofit in Houston, Texas, told the Times that her low credit score was the reason why her boyfriend refused to marry her. His condition was that she had to significantly pay off the more than $150,000 she owes in student loans and increase her low credit score of 600 before he'll consider marriage.

His defense? Dollard said that he told her that "doesn't ever want to be accountable for the irresponsible financial decision I made."

The Times reported that dating someone with a poor credit could have "real implications".

John Hendrix from San Francisco said that the worried that the huge difference between his low credit score and his girlfriend's credit score caused friction in their relationship.

Hendrix said that when he and his girlfriend had leased a car in October, he was asked to leave his name off the contract because his poor credit lowered their chances for the bargain interest rate that his girlfriend had qualified for.

Now, many banks will not even consider making loans to borrowers with low credit scores below 660.

A low credit score could destroy a person's chances of buying a house, and result in high interest rates for things like credit cards or car financing.

The best credit scores range from 800 to 850, and good credit scores are those above 750.

However, not all is hopeless for those with low credit scores. Jen Doll from The Atlantic has offered a few prepared responses for those too embarrassed to reveal their poor score.

"Either you don't know your credit score, or you do. If you don't, you're probably not a good match for someone asking you your credit score on a first date, and you should sneak out through the back after drinking everything on the table," Doll wrote.

According to Doll, if you do know your credit score, and it is something bad, you should lie.

"At least get a free meal, lord knows you could use it, and, look, later you can tell the truth, or just 'disappear'," she wrote. "If your credit score is great, congratulations! Tell that person exactly what it is."

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