Found out my Boyfriend's FICO score is in the 400's and mine is in the 800's, so...

[Anonymous]

DUMP THE LOSER!!!  Save yourself from a lifetime of lies, cheating, and financial disaster.  This is your warning call...don't ignore it no matter how much you love him...he doesn't love you enough. 

[Anonymous]

I agree with md521, finance issues is the number one reason why people divorce well over infidelity.  If you are willing to help him get his credit score up before getting married would make more sense because then you can feel at ease on applying for things jointly  He may have to go through credit counseling to learn how to keep his score up as well as change spending and being more responsible on bill paying.  I understand that many circumstances occur as to getting poor credit history.  the Good news is that it doesn't have to stay that way.  I and my boyfriend have ex spouses that created terrible debt.  We both now have cleaned our credit up and unfortunately had to pay off old debt that again was created by our old spouses.  But we have dramatically improved our scores and is now looking for homes too.  Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on why he was not forthcoming about his debt and credit. If he is just a guy who lives life without care and responsibility - RUN. if he is an otherwise honest guy that got himself in over his head and was too afraid to tell you, all is not lost. Sit down and tell him why this is so important to you, and how lies or avoiding the past won't fix the damage done by not keeping commitments. Sit him down and find out how he wants to proceed, but explain to him that you don't deserve the credit he has built, and if he wants a good future, it needs to be changed. How he acts will tell a lot about what you may want to do next. 

if he's worth the wait, give him a couple of years to clean up his act before you marry him. His actions over time will be like your own personal FICO score...to judge whether he is worthy of your investment.

[Anonymous]

If he is already lying to you..It won't change.  When someone shows you who they are...believe them!  His poor credit and poor financial habits will drag you down on EVERYTHING you want to buy no matter where you go.  400 is not just bad...I don't know that I have ever seen one that low.  That takes some real consistency.

[Anonymous]

What state are you in? If you are in a community property state any debts he incurs after marriage are equally your responsibility EVEN IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THEY EXIST. Think long and hard about his lying behavior. This is my story...I married a man with a low credit score who did not outright lie...but withheld information about his financial status, including bad tax debts. After 10 years of marriage he had driven us into over $120,000 of unsecured debt. Yes you read it right $120,000. Most of that debt is in my name. We are also $80,000 upside down in the house we bought together. The whole time I was expressing concern about the increasing debt load...he would vehemently and adamantly insist he would never leave me in a bad place. We are now divorced...he has been unable to refinance the house to his name. When he misses payments, they show up on my credit report. In the divorce he agreed to pay off the credit cards he ran up in my name. They are all on 5 year hardship repayment programs. When he misses those payments they also show up on my credit report. The kicker is that even though the divorce mandates he pays...it is up to me to collect that payment. The credit cards still hold me responsible and if he does not make the payments, they will garnish MY wages...even long after the divorce. To make matters worse his late payments and the debt to income ratio now in my name only have dropped my credit score by nearly 200 points. This means my auto insurance premiums have gone up for no reason other than my credit score. I had a credit card that I kept paid off...had no debt balance on it whatsoever and the credit card company cancelled the card because of my credit score...which in turn lowered my score even more. When my kids wanted to start a credit line to build their own credit I could not cosign for a credit card for them because my credit is trashed. I would love to buy a home...I have a secure job and the market is great...but there is no way I could ever qualify for a loan right now because of what he has done to me.

Are you getting the picture???? I don't mean to be rude...but I will say what needs to be said if no one else will. Do NOT marry this person. Period. Nuff said.

-L

[MarineVietVet]

Hi ljr and welcome to the forums.

May I make a gentle suggestion? Could you break your post into several or more smaller paragraphs? An entire block of words with no breaks is very hard to read and some folks will go right past it and might miss something important.

It is possible to edit your own post. To edit your post, go to the post.  To the right you'll see "Options." Click on "Options" and select "Edit Message" from the drop-down menu. If you need any help with anything, let me know.

Thanks for finding and joining us.

--marinevietvet, myFICO moderator

[Anonymous]

This posting has helped me realize that we will need to take things slow.  I already told him I was not getting married right now and that we also need to go over finances.  I will buy a home on my own and he will need to work on his debt and show me everything he owes.  He has a good job and now I just need to make sure he understands how I feel.  If we get married once he gets all his bills and debt paid off, who knows.  I know hiding debt from me is not good, but at the same time we are not engaged yet.  I do understand what you are saying and I appreciate it.  Thanks! 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your post.  I do not plan to help him pay off his bills, since we are not even engaged.  WE are living together now and that is sort of how I realized he had some money problems, which is good, I know.  We'll see how things go, but not telling me what he owes makes me scared and so we will have to sit down and go over it all and make him understand how I feel.  I do plan to buy a house without him, as now is the time to buy one.  But I understand how it will effect me and I will take it slow and make sure he's taking care of his money matters.  Thanks for your input!   

[Anonymous]

Don't marry a guy who doesn't keep his word.  Period.

[MattH]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It's amazing how many different answers I get on the combining of our scores..yes, no, yes no.  I am now hearing the scores do not combine after marriage,  BUT only with some situations.  I was told 'if' we get married, the mortgage company would take both our scores and use the lowest and go from there.  Obviously we'd be turned down.  Thanks for your 2 cents...I know this is serious and I need to 'order' him to sit and pull up his score and deal w/it.  If not, I'm done.  I can't live like this for the rest of my hard working years! 

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As others have said, each member of a married couple will have his or her own credit history and credit scores.  That does not change because of marriage.  Some things do change, however, if you have joint accounts.  For a mortgage they usually go by the middle score of whoever has worse credit, and if both names will be on the title then both names probably need to be on the mortgage.  When my wife and I bought our current residence eight years ago both of us had high FICO scores so those were not an issue.  However, at the time she was a freelance writer and editor so her income would have been tedious to document; since my salary was easily sufficient to cover the loan, we just put "homemaker" for occupation on her application and applied based entirely on my salary.  Five years ago she returned to working full time for one employer.

If this guy wants you to cosign anything, beware, you do not want to risk his issues damaging your credit.  My wife and I signed our mortgage together, but each of us has an income, bank accounts, credit cards, etc., as an individual.  She didn't cosign my credit cards or car purchases and I didn't cosign her applications.

Don't let him sponge off of your money, whatever you do.  Set and enforce clear ground rules to protect yourself so this guy does not take advantage of you.

However, as others have noted I think the fact that he has been lying to you is a much bigger deal than the FICO score itself.  I'm not perfect, nor is my wife perfect, but before we got married in 1991 each of us shared all issues with the other.