Credit scores can affect several aspects of your life including what type of interest rate you get on a loan, whether or not you can even get a loan, or whether or not you have to pay a deposit for utilities.

A recent study found that, on average, women had a 621 credit score compared to men’s 630 score. While that might not seem like a lot on the surface, the cutoff range for home loan eligibility is around 620-630 for some banks and Federal loan programs. Additionally, a credit score of 630 can result in a better interest rate for car loans and shorter repayment terms as opposed to a 621 score.

What is more surprising is that males have a higher debt loan as opposed to females, yet still have the benefit of a higher credit score. This is probably due to more overall debt, but access to higher credit lines, reducing their credit utilization ratio.

Missed payments are also more common with men as opposed to women, which likely means that if payment histories are the same, a man’s credit score would be significantly higher than a woman’s.

This may just be a symptom of the pay gap between men and women, but it can have a dramatic impact on woman’s life. Lower credit scores mean less access to credit for emergencies as well as less access to capital for starting a business, or expanding a current one.

Understanding your credit score, man or woman, can help you see what type of credit cards you may be eligible to receive, or what kind of interest rate you can get on a loan, if you can get one at all. Checking your credit score is simple and doesn’t cost you anything, nor does it hurt your credit when you check it yourself.