I'm desperately hoping to avoid harboring any more resentment towards myself and my fiance, maybe there are some helpful tips someone could provide to aid in my attempt to establish some credit for him so he doesn't have to continue to tarnish mine.
I'm 28, living with my fiance of 8 years, and just recently moved to a new state. We, or should I say I, incurred about $1800 of debt moving up here and then making our house liveable as this was our first home together and his first time out of his parent's house period. I did not forsee this as a problem, since my new salary and new atmosphere would be worth it. I had lived on my own for awhile but moved in with him to his parent's house for about 5 years. I was able to save up enough to fund most of this move for the both of us. Seeing as he did not have much guidance, his credit has basically been a by-product of his parents' bad habits at the time. (When I first moved in, I caught wind his bank account was his mother's sock drawer until I persuaded him to start managing his own money himself!) After getting caught up in an insane monthly car payment, and seemingly never-ending student loans, and less than desireable work situations, he was in over his head. His parents continued to "manage" these loans and led him to believe he was doing just fine. I had no clue he was not actually taking part in any of this otherwise I would have pushed sooner but I didn't believe it was my place to nose in on his business. Long story short, after he defaulted on just about every single car payment for years, requesting decreases and thus adding more time to the loan, amongst other discrepancies, his credit score has suffered and he has been turned down for all major credit cards.
I felt after a year of living together in our new home he was showing responsibility and working with me to learn how to manage money and pay bills. His car is very expensive to maintain (would not agree to sell it even if he was dead) so I agreed to reqlinquish one of my credit cards to him for repairs and other NECESSITIES. This was my fault. I have asked several times for it back, but end up folding and giving it back to him after long talks about being more careful. At this point, sometimes I feel like a nagging mother which is not a very good feeling inside. Needless to say, he has racked up $3,885 on my Discover card with a $4000 limit! I only have one other card with Citibank that I have dental and health bills I'm paying off amounting to $2200 of my $4400 limit.
I feel this is an overwhelming battle that I do not know how to get out of. I would like to be able to find a way for him to stat to bring up his score and maybe apply for a card on his own so I can try to transfer some if this balance to his name. My previuosly great credit score of 795 was the reason we were able to get the (rental)home we have now and have all of our deposits waived. I'm afraid if my score starts to drop even more than it has, down to 693, we'll pay for it later when we try to purchase a house of our own. He is a great person and I truly believe he has a difficult managing his spending and money in general from shear lack of experience. I see it wearing down on him but it's also wearing down on me. I don't want to lose this great relationship over something so frivolous.
Is it a bad idea to respond to an offer from Express to try to bring my available credit up to maybe lower my ratio? I know this will decrease the age of all of my accounts yet again, but I'm not sure which is worse? Are there any dependable credit card offers to people with a 500 score that maybe he could try out? Please help!
(I apologize for the lengthy story)
