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Applying for Credit

The ECOA limits what questions creditors may ask you on an application.

  • You may not be asked your sex on a credit application, with one exception: if you apply for a loan to buy or build a home, a creditor is required to ask your sex to provide the federal government with information to monitor compliance with the ECOA. You do not have to answer the question.

  • You do not have to choose a courtesy title (Ms., Miss or Mrs.) on a credit form.

  • A creditor may not request your marital status on an application for an individual, unsecured account (a bank credit card or an overdraft checking account, for example), unless you live in a community property state or rely on property lo-cated in a community property state to support your application. (Community property states are Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.) A creditor may request your marital status in all other cases, but can ask only whether you are married, unmarried or separated. (Unmarried includes single, divorced or widowed.)

  • A creditor may not ask about your husband unless he will have access to the credit; you are relying on his income to support your application; or you live in a community property state.

  • A creditor may not ask about your birth control practices or your plans to have children, but may inquire about the number and age of the children you presently have and the cost of caring for them.

  • While creditors may ask about your obligation to pay alimony or child support, they may not ask about the amount and reliability of alimony or child support you receive unless you are relying on that income to improve your chances of getting credit.

Rating you as a credit risk

Under the ECOA, creditors must apply the same standards in evaluating men and women as credit risks. For example, a creditor may not require women to have higher incomes than men have to qualify for a credit card. Also creditors may not:

  • consider whether you have a telephone listed in your name, although they may take into account whether there is a phone in your home;

  • refuse to consider your income because you are married, even if it is from part-time employment;

  • refuse to consider reliable alimony, child support or public assistance income offered to support your application; or

  • assume women of child-bearing age will leave the workforce to raise children.

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