By Stacy A. Teicher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Imagine sitting across a table from people who want to make a quick judgment about your character. You're speed-dating, or applying for a job, or even meeting "the parents."

Then they pull out a thin file containing your entire ... credit history.

Face it. Credit Scores and credit reports these days are used for a lot more than loan applications. Many employers order one up when screening potential hires. Relationship experts tout it as a good tool for choosing a compatible partner or creating "financial intimacy."

The rationale is clear: If your bills are paid on time, you're responsible. If not,?many people?reason, you might be less trustworthy with money.

The problem, experts say, is that many factors that can affect a credit report have?a lot?to do with an individual's character. "It's going to reflect things like divorce, sickness, loss of one's job, possibly even identity theft ... so as a measure of conscientiousness or attention to detail, it's? very good," says?Leslie Palmer, a professor of industrial and organizational psychology at?Western Kentucky University in Richmond.

With so many aspects of life now tied to credit scores - everything from insurance policies to apartment rentals - more couples might decide to swap credit reports before saying "I do."

"A credit score is just another tool for helping to get to know a person better," says Helga Hayse of San Mateo, Calif., who gives financial seminars and runs the website financialintimacy.com. "It might show you that someone's got a low ability to defer gratification.... If there's anything that is a romantic and financial caution light, then a credit report can help you [discuss] that."

Ms. Hayse tells of one woman who was surprised to learn - when a creditor called the house - that her husband had been financing a vending-machine business with a personal credit card. He said he wanted to bring in extra money for them but didn't want to worry her. The maxed-out credit cards affected long-range goals they had set together, and eventually they divorced.

Credit expert Stephen Snyder recalls a man whose ex-wife had led him into bankruptcy. He had just recovered from his anger and was starting to fall in love with another woman when he attended Mr. Snyder's financial seminar. "He was telling me all this during the break, and he said, 'Should I look at her credit scores?' [At first] I thought that was the strangest thing I'd ever heard. But for people in?these times, it?is a growing trend."