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Credit and Marriage - The Bills.com Blog
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Credit and Marriage
Thursday, Apr 5, 2007
Question: Do you inherit bad credit from a partner who has bad credit before you marry them?
Answer: Thanks for visiting Bills.com and I think I can help with your credit question. The quick answer is: No! You will not inherit your spouse's credit rating.What you might get however, is that if you jointly apply for a mortgage or a loan, BOTH of your credit ratings will be analyzed if you both apply together.
Be sure not to add yourself to your spouse's cards, but you can add your spouse to your cards as a joint-borrower, which will help pull their credit up.
Also, you should try to pay off any delinquent cards or accounts as quickly as possible to improve their credit.
Also, it might be important
to understand how your credit score is calculated. Your credit rating is calculated based on several variables, including: your payment history (do you have any late payments, charge-offs, etc.), the amount and type of debt that you owe, if you have maxed out any of your trade lines, and then several other secondary factors like the length
of your credit history and how many recent inquiries have been made to look at your credit history. Paying off delinquent or maxed out trade-lines will almost always help your credit score.
If you would like more information, please visit our Credit Resource Page.
We hope that this helped you to Find, Learn, & Save!
Best,
Bill
www.bills.com/blog/
If you would like more information, please visit our Credit Resource Page.
We hope that this helped you to Find, Learn, & Save!
Best,
Bill
www.bills.com/blog/
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1. Posted by Elizabeth on Friday 7th August 2009 12:45
Does my future husband acquire my debts after we are married?
2. Posted by Bill on Monday 10th August 2009 08:27
Generally speaking, premarital debt is not automatically assumed by both spouses, but the liability for the collection of the debt is. Family law varies from state to state. For a definitive answer you should ask this question to an attorney in your state who will analyze the nature of the debt (mortgage? credit card? judgment? taxes?) and offer an opinion based on the facts and your state's laws.
3. Posted by iesha on Monday 7th September 2009 07:31
If I am in the process of closing on a home. Will it affect my credit if my husband opens a new account?
4. Posted by Bill on Tuesday 8th September 2009 10:51
No. Each spouse has a separate credit score. The only time where credit scores would be in lock-step with each other would be where both spouses are joint account holders on all of their accounts and had similar employment longevities. If your spouse is not on the mortgage, then he can do whatever he wants that affects his credit score and it will not affect your separate mortgage application. However, if he is a co-applicant on the mortgage, then he should delay his separate credit application if possible, as it may lower his credit score.
5. Posted by Debra Augustin on Monday 5th October 2009 17:16
I read the answer above and want to make sure. I live in CALIFORNIA. Is it true I have excellent credit and have my own debt. As long as I don't merge with my husband to be, I will not accumualate HIS BAD CREDIT, due to medical bills mostly......... Or if I don't change my last name or joint credit cards with him... True? What about lease on a apartment? How does this work. I don't want a merge with ......his bad credit...........keep names separate and use are own credit cards in our names, is OK?
6. Posted by Bill on Monday 5th October 2009 18:27
Nobody's credit score merges with another when you marry. You can have a spotless credit report and marry a person with disastrous credit report and it will not affect your credit score one bit unless you co-sign on a loan, credit card, or debt of some other kind. If you keep your accounts separate, which I strongly recommend, you will retain your strong credit score. The name you choose to call yourself does not matter to the credit reporting agencies. The key index is your social security number, which does not change when you change your name.
7. Posted by Jill on Friday 30th October 2009 08:13
My fiance and I are getting married in November. He is currently going through a short sale on a condo he purchased with a friend. If I am interpreting the above correctly, when we get married, the negative on his credit from the short sale will not affect my credit, as long as we keep our accounts separate? Does this also include checking/savings accounts or just credit accounts?
8. Posted by Bill on Friday 30th October 2009 08:42
Each person has their own credit report and resulting credit score. That does not change for married individuals. Creating joint checking or savings accounts does not affect credit scores because activity on those accounts is not reported to the credit bureaus, generally speaking. Therefore, a person (married or not) with an excellent credit score can have a joint checking or savings account with a person with terrible credit and there will be no affect on either person's score. What I am about to say is not responsive to your question, but my unsolicited advice is to consider the advantages and disadvantages of creating joint accounts in general. People never plan to divorce, but if you do, maintaining separate accounts makes the division of assets much easier.