Count yourself lucky. It's not smart to get a joint CC. One of you can make the other an authorized user on most cards. AU accounts are still scored for FICO scores (they changed their minds on this one.)
If one of you were to have some sort of financial catastrophe (uninsured medical bills, etc) on down the road and have to include the card in BK, the other would lose access as well.
For the financial health of the couple, the best bet is to hold credit separately, except for the mortgage, and make one another AU on cards that would be helpful for both to carry.
I didn't mention the Big D, but that's also obviously the other big risk of joint credit. But no one ever believes it might happen to them, so think about things from the BK angle and other financial/ credit risks.
eta: sorry, I broke one of my own rules above.
If you do want to recon your application, check the Frequently Requested Threads thread (stickied at the top of many boards plus in my siggy) and look for letters there.
Has your wife ever had past problems with HSBC --charge-off, BK, etc.? HSBC issues the store card and the MC, and if they have issues with her on some past account (not necessarily Best Buy), that might have tanked the app.
If you want to recon, I'd wait for the denial letter to see which reason they give. Do call their back-door number for recons to make sure that they're mailing one. That seems to be the latest trend among banks --not bothering to mail the letter with the code for the free credit report upon denial.
If one of you were to have some sort of financial catastrophe (uninsured medical bills, etc) on down the road and have to include the card in BK, the other would lose access as well.
For the financial health of the couple, the best bet is to hold credit separately, except for the mortgage, and make one another AU on cards that would be helpful for both to carry.
I didn't mention the Big D, but that's also obviously the other big risk of joint credit. But no one ever believes it might happen to them, so think about things from the BK angle and other financial/ credit risks.
eta: sorry, I broke one of my own rules above.
If you do want to recon your application, check the Frequently Requested Threads thread (stickied at the top of many boards plus in my siggy) and look for letters there.Has your wife ever had past problems with HSBC --charge-off, BK, etc.? HSBC issues the store card and the MC, and if they have issues with her on some past account (not necessarily Best Buy), that might have tanked the app.
If you want to recon, I'd wait for the denial letter to see which reason they give. Do call their back-door number for recons to make sure that they're mailing one. That seems to be the latest trend among banks --not bothering to mail the letter with the code for the free credit report upon denial.
Definitely a good idea to review the abbreviations list (in my sig line), cause most posts will have them.
Esu123 wrote:
Haulingthescoreup:
Thanks for the tip on joint accounts. Who would ever know that joint accounts are a bad thing? It is hard to believe, but adding my Wife as an authorized user is easy enough. As an aside, since I'm not a regular in the forum, avoiding the abbreviations would make your wisdom easier to understand on an intuitive level; for example, what's Big D? Death, Debt, or Doughnuts?
lol, Big D = divorce, although I'm pretty sure that this one isn't on the frequent abbreviations list.
I'm not being flip about divorce by any means --it happens a lot, and sometimes both parties see it coming, and sometimes they don't. No one wants to think it will happen to them, and people are downright superstitious about the whole issue. But divorce can play havoc with personal credit, even in those instances where both parties behave themselves. Just having all that history entangled with one another --the only safe thing to do is to close down perfectly good accounts, because there is pretty much no way on earth to remove a joint user from an account.
And it doesn't matter what the divorce decree says. You'd better believe that if someone's name is on that account, and it goes sour 10 years later, the creditors are most definitely going to come after that person, decree or no decree.
Back in my semi-brief period of listening to country, I loved this song by Mark Chesnutt (the link doesn't have the whole song, unfortunately):
Six short months we went together
Decided it should be forever
Two paychecks are better than one
A diamond ring and it was done
I bought her a house like I said I would
In a subdivided neighborhood
The fuse got short and the nights got long
It was over long gone, before I knew
Where I was headed to
I'm goin' through the big D and don't mean Dallas
I can't believe what the judge had to tell us,
I got the Jeep, she got the palace
I'm goin' through the big D and don't mean Dallas
Things like this are never final
I'm still paying on the vinyl
Flooring in the laundry room
It's multicolored and waterproof
It's a little bit tough to face my friends
The ones that said that I jumped in
The river of love a little too soon,
That was August, this is June
And it's a different tune...