Women get lower credit limits than men

When we heard that women were receiving lower credit limits than men, we were a bit surprised, so we decided to investigate. We were shocked by our findings. Our tests found women DO receive lower credit limits than men.

This first came to our attention when we came across a CNN story being investigated in America. Female complainants were alleging that they were being discriminated against by lenders who would offer them lower borrowing limits than they would men who had the same or similar creditworthiness.

That process is still ongoing in the USA, and no findings have yet been made. But it got us thinking, is a similar difference occurring in the UK? Could female applicants be receiving lower credit offers than men?

The problem with investigating these types of questions is that nobody, man or woman will present the exact financial status. Even those that have the same credit scores can present different risks. Meaning that lenders will treat them differently.

It is impossible to take one male and a female with a similar credit score and make a judgement either way. The only way to check correctly is to select a much more comprehensive sample size of around 200 people. 100 men and 100 women with similar credit scores.

We studied these two groups over one month. We spent another week analysing the data and found that females were receiving offers of lower credit limits. On average, they were receiving 32% less than their male counterparts across all three lending criteria (low, medium and high risk).

Unfortunately, we can only speculate as to the reasons behind the difference. We did reach out to several direct lenders, but all declined to comment.

Will this one day go to court in the UK? That is hard to say, if the case succeeds in America, it could well be only a matter of time before a female brings it to the attention of a court in the UK.