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Question:
OCT 23, 2012

Marriage & Your Credit Score

When you marry, do you inherit your spouse's bad credit score or history?

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Bill's Answer: Answered by Mark Cappel

The quick answer is: No! You will not inherit your spouse’s credit rating. There is no "marital credit score." One spouse's score can be high, and the other's score may be low, and both will remain that way if they continue their behavior. 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.

If you have a high credit score and you spouse has a low score, do not add yourself to your spouse’s cards as an authorized user because your credit score will suffer. If you have low credit and your spouse has excellent credit, ask your spouse to add you as an authorized user, which will pull up your credit score. This is called piggy-backing in the credit report trade.

Practice good credit hygiene. Pay your bills on time. Pay off any delinquent cards or accounts as quickly as possible to improve your credit rating. Do not max-out your credit cards.

It might be important to understand how your credit score is calculated. FICO, VantageScore, and PLUS Score use five variables to calculate a consumer's credit score, including:

  1. Payment history (any delinquencies, charge-offs, etc.)
  2. Amount and type of debt owed
  3. Any maxed-out tradelines (accounts)
  4. Credit history length
  5. Number of recent inquiries (so-called "hard-pulls") to the consumer's credit profile

Paying off delinquent or maxed out trade-lines will almost always help your credit score. To learn more, see the credit score resource page.

We hope this helped you to Find, Learn, & Save!

Best,

Bill

Bills.com

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Comments (22)


Jacquline M.
Metairie, LA  |  August 20, 2011
I had credit card debt in Louisiana and am moving to the UK to live with my husband he is a UK citizen so since I got this debt in the US will it effect him there as well I only signed and got this debt before we married.
Bills.com
August 24, 2011
In theory, if you co-mingle assets overseas and the creditor went to the effort of suing you and attempting to domesticate the judgment in the UK, some of his assets may be at risk. I think this unlikely. I am unaware of any ability to come after his income, but you should speak with someone licensed to give legal advice in the UK, to get an authoritative answer.

You may also want to consult with an attorney in LA, to see if the fact that Louisiana is a community property state will make your spouse liable for the debt, even if it was incurred prior to marriage.

Your best course of action may be to look into debt settlement.
Jacquline M.
Metairie, LA  |  August 20, 2011
Hi, I just got married and I have some credit card debt. I got this before my husband and I got married. Will he get my debt since we married or is it still just mine? I do not want him being held responsible for my debt. I also do not want his wages to be touched by companies for my debt.
Bills.com
August 20, 2011
See the Bills.com resource Responsibility for Spouse's Debt for a discussion of the issues you raise in your question. Please ask any follow-up questions you may have regarding these issues on that page.
Lady T.
Macon, GA  |  June 14, 2011
i found out that my husband had debts before we got married, and now we have a joint checking account, will i be liable or inherit his past debts? from Georgia
Bills.com
June 15, 2011
Premarital debt is fact and state law dependent. Marital property and debt may or may not be separate depending on its nature and how it was acquired.

In non-community property states, pre-marital property and debt are considered separate property. If the spouses now live in a community property state, or lived in one at the time the consumer debt account (such as a credit card account) was opened, the non-signing spouse may have incurred liability without signing a credit contract as co-debtor.
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Bills.com
May 24, 2010
Joint accounts are irrelevant. You will qualify for a mortgage if you have an attractive debt-to-income ratio, you have a down payment for the new house, and you have a positive credit history. The fact that you have great credit is helpful, but meaningless if your DTI is too high or you have nothing to put down.
Joseph D.
May 23, 2010
We currently own a home in California that is $150K under. We can still pay the mortgage but due to a job we want to move to Texas. Our current home is only in my wife's name - I have good/excellent credit and we don't have any joint debt. So, what I'm understanding is that I'll be able to get a loan even if we short sell our current home. Is that right? We do have joint bank accounts, but no real debt other than the mortgage. Do join bank accounts have an effect on loans? And do different states have different laws regarding checking your spouse's credit? Thanks!
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Bills.com
May 11, 2010
There is no state law involved in your question. Credit reporting is controlled by federal law. More to the point, there is no merged, marital credit score. Spouse A can have an 800 score, and Spouse B can have a 500, and two will never meld or combine if the two spouses maintain separate debt accounts. In this situation I suggest you do just that -- keep all of your accounts separate especially if he is facing $500K in debt.
Heather .
May 11, 2010
I live in VA my husband to be in NC. His previous wife gave him nearly half a million in debt. He is worried if we get married he will ruin my credit. Considering our states, is there any other rules to go by to keep our scores seperate besides avoiding joint anythings and making sure during our marriage he doesn't accrue more debt?
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Bills.com
March 22, 2010
It depends on if you are in a community property state, but most likely you will get a straight answer from a trusted Loan Officer. I'd suggest applying and talking to a few LOs and see what and who has the best deal for your situation. I can tell you that if you don't include him, because of his bad credit, on the application you will not be able to include his income on the debt to income calculation. Good luck and let us know how it goes. Bill
Julie A.
March 22, 2010
My husband has horrible credit. My credit is amazing. I would like to obtain a mortgage as a first home owner. Our checking and savings account is joint. We have multiple savings in our joint account. If we want to use only my credit as well as only my income to purchase a home will the banks allow me to claim the savings in our joint account as my savings or do I have to get an account of my own not linked with my husband.
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Bills.com
January 10, 2010
When applying for a short sale the homeowner must make a complete disclosure of the household income and expenses. If the disclosure is/was complete and accurate, there is no fraud. If the application was incomplete with the intention of misleading the mortgage holder, then there may be fraud. A person needs more than good credit to qualify for a mortgage. Here, wife should download a Uniform Residential Loan Application (Form 1003), complete it for herself and leave off her partner's information, and start shopping. Get no-cost mortgage quotes from up to four pre-screened lenders from Bills.com.
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