Getting Married and Credit Cards

[scientifics]

I am getting married in June and my fiancee and I have some of the same cards and some different ones. We are combining our finances, so ideally, we would like to combine our credit as well. I have: (2) Citi cards, Discover, PNC, Amex, Chase, and Target (Store). My fiancee has: Discover, Chase, and Gap (Store). Our Discover and Chase cards are the same (Discover More and Chase Freedom). Will we be able to combine our cards and get joint accounts? Any experiences with this would be greatly appreciated!

[eparker]

Just my thoughts:    Through research I have found that many suggest having separate credit card accounts.  The only joint was a mortgage.  I guess the thinking just in case there are credit problems down the line both wont be effected.  Then at least one spouse will have credit to purchase something.  I know marriage is suppose to be forever but you also have to think what if something happens down the line.  At least that will not follow either one of you.  But you have to do what is best for your situation. 

If one person is not credit savy and alert it wont' hurt both of you.  I recently remarried and I am still dealing with some credit issues from my previous marriage. 

Good luck.....

[pizzadude]

Congrats on your forthcoming nuptials !!

Assuming that you both have clean history on your cards, the best option I can see would be to add each other as AUs on your cards, that way you will each benefit from the AAoA and clean history of all your combined TLs.

Going forward you can jointly apply for new CCs or loans.

[RockinRay]

In our case, we have four joint card accounts:

USAA World MC, $25,000 CL

Wings FCU Visa, $10,000 CL

PenFed Visa, $20,000 CL

PSECU, $20,000 CL

All of our other cards are in our names only. I think it is good to have both.

JMO -

Ray

[tinuviel]

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@eparker wrote:

Just my thoughts:    Through research I have found that many suggest having separate credit card accounts.  The only joint was a mortgage.  I guess the thinking just in case there are credit problems down the line both wont be effected.  Then at least one spouse will have credit to purchase something.  I know marriage is suppose to be forever but you also have to think what if something happens down the line.  At least that will not follow either one of you.  But you have to do what is best for your situation. 

If one person is not credit savy and alert it wont' hurt both of you.  I recently remarried and I am still dealing with some credit issues from my previous marriage. 

Good luck.....

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I have to give a +1 to this. My DH and I started out during the early part of our marriage with joint accounts, but later on in life only opened separate accounts. This was mostly because online apping didn't allow for it, and as I was more interested in adding to my portfolio than he was, I wound up with the bulk of the cards. When we were hit with hurricanes two years in a row, we experienced financial problems and some of my cards were adversely affected. Since only one of the cards affected was a joint account, he has had fewer baddies on his reports to deal with. Since you can never be certain of what life will throw at you, I'm of the opinion that keeping separate accounts is a safer course of action.

[ficonightmare]

Most of our cards are seperate. I am an AU on a few of his cards but mainly for large joint purchases.

But I'm in the camp of married couple keeping their finances (except those that affect the household) seperate.

[quest208]

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@eparker wrote:

Just my thoughts:    Through research I have found that many suggest having separate credit card accounts.  The only joint was a mortgage.  I guess the thinking just in case there are credit problems down the line both wont be effected.  Then at least one spouse will have credit to purchase something.  I know marriage is suppose to be forever but you also have to think what if something happens down the line.  At least that will not follow either one of you.  But you have to do what is best for your situation. 

If one person is not credit savy and alert it wont' hurt both of you.  I recently remarried and I am still dealing with some credit issues from my previous marriage. 

Good luck.....

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+2

there's nothing wrong with having seperate cards.  maybe one joint card for household bills, travel accomodations, dining, etc.

[CS800]

At least in the begining, keep them seperate. Wait a while, stabilize your credit (if youre rebuilding)

[Anonymous]

We do our budget jointly - but have mostly individual accounts. 

Depending on the account, being an AU on one another's accounts also has the downside of reporting that balance for both of you.  Just something to consider. 

[Anonymous]

We have all our CC accounts seperate.

I would only go for a mortgage loan with joint and auto loan (last option) joint.

In case something happens one can take care of other and both are not affected as described in one of the responses.