Marriage and Credit

[Anonymous]

Okay, I have a question, (actually, several questions)

My wife and I were married almost 2 years ago.  Both of us had mediocre credit, however, mine was (and remains) a little better than hers (mine is in the low 700s, hers the mid 600s).  We are preparing to purchase our first home in about a year.  These are my questions:

1.   Does adding her as an "authorized user" of credit cards that I had before we were married affect her credit?  Will they show up as open revolving credit accounts on her report?

2.  She has a car loan with a high APR that she secured before we were married, is it a good idea to refinance that loan to get a better rate?  If so, is now a good time... or will that hurt our credit by applying for new credit at this time?

3.  How will lenders view us when we shop for a loan?  Will they average our scores, or will one carry more weight than the other?

Any information you can provide will help immensely.  Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Addingyour wife to your creditcards can indeen boost her score but only IF that card reports authorized users.  It can also hurt her score if there are any negatives such as High utilization or late history.  Make sure it is one of your older cards and has low utilization.  It should increase the age of her reports as well as her available credit, both of which are positives.

That being said when you apply for a home loan, they will pull both reports, depending on the lender, they may go with the higher set of scores, but 620 should get you in the door on non sub-prime loan rates. A mortgage loan can drastically improve her score. If the car can be refinanced and she is not upside down in it, refinance it, you'll wind up reducing your debt to income ration which is another thing mortgage lenders look at.

[Anonymous]

I am not married yet, but my credit is better than my fiance's and I was wondering how marriage affects credit nowadays. We have a joint checking already and he is authorized on three credit cards, only one of which has a balance that we use for gas expense and pay off each month, so if he has bad credit (actually nothing on it but a zombie debt thing from 8 years ago) and he has those things from me on there, can his score hurt me??  We were just wondering before we think about buying a house to make sure things are in line with our goals.

Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

Yes it can hurt you when you go to app jointly- so try to read as much as you can on these boards and do as much as you can to get her credit scores up BEFORE you get married- also just to let you know- I didn't want to go into marriage /w my debt so I worked my fanny off paynig off debt before we got married so we didn't carry my debt in. (I am female by the way). It also included my doing a vol repo but PAYING OFF THE BALANCE so it didnt' show as a repo.

Not trying to rain on your parade but read every single thing on these board and try to max her scores out before you get married- also doing this together and reading  financial books w/ bring you closer and teach you to budget together before you get married.

JMHO.

[Anonymous]

Whoops! thought she was a she and not a  he. Try to bring His  scores up and learn about finances together.

[Anonymous]

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skywalk22 wrote:

Okay, I have a question, (actually, several questions)

My wife and I were married almost 2 years ago.  Both of us had mediocre credit, however, mine was (and remains) a little better than hers (mine is in the low 700s, hers the mid 600s).  We are preparing to purchase our first home in about a year.  These are my questions:

1.   Does adding her as an "authorized user" of credit cards that I had before we were married affect her credit?  Will they show up as open revolving credit accounts on her report?

2.  She has a car loan with a high APR that she secured before we were married, is it a good idea to refinance that loan to get a better rate?  If so, is now a good time... or will that hurt our credit by applying for new credit at this time?

3.  How will lenders view us when we shop for a loan?  Will they average our scores, or will one carry more weight than the other?

Any information you can provide will help immensely.  Thanks!

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I agree with BRAMMY as to the adding as an AU...BUT all CC should be in 1 name only. You have no idea what will take place down the road. IF god forbid there is illness that causes financial problems...try to keep 1 person out of it!  I know this because it happened to us. We only used 1 persons CC for meds & things that were needed. This way only 1 of our credit was hurt.

Mortgage is different this is usually joint but NEVER CCs. We even have our auto loans seperate, but that isn't always easy.

AU on a CC is very different then joint!

Most marriages break over money. SO we each have a seperate checking & savings BUT we also have joint checking for all bills & a joint savings.

This way there are no fights over who is spending too much shopping or tkts for games etc.

 Our seperate accounts do not have that much in them but it is ours to spend as we please.

This has worked for us for over 40 years & is working for our kids.

[Anonymous]

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doglover101 wrote:

I am not married yet, but my credit is better than my fiance's and I was wondering how marriage affects credit nowadays. We have a joint checking already and he is authorized on three credit cards, only one of which has a balance that we use for gas expense and pay off each month, so if he has bad credit (actually nothing on it but a zombie debt thing from 8 years ago) and he has those things from me on there, can his score hurt me??  We were just wondering before we think about buying a house to make sure things are in line with our goals.

Thanks!!

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If it is a zombie  get it off!!!  he needs his own CC in his name only....when you say that he is authorized on your cards,do you mean as an AU?  I hope.

The only time that his score will hurt you OR your's hurt him is when both names are on the account.

We have be told that next year AUs on an account will not get credit but we have to wait & see about that.

Right now if the owner of the CC has missed payments,any derogs or high UTIL it will hurt the AU as well as the owner.