Just Married - Joint Account or Authorized User

[Anonymous]

I recently got married and both my wife and I have a good credit history. As our existing individual credit cards have different rewards structures for different types of purchases, I would like a card on her account and to give her a card on mine. I understand that I have (potentially) the option of doing this by making the accounts a "joint account" or by just adding an authorized user. My question is to what is best for our credit scores? I understand that the authorized user method will not be included for the credit report of such a user. However, concerning doing it by the "joint account" method, does the duration history of the credit line tack or will one of us have our score penalized. (For instance, assume that I have had all of my account open for 7 years. Assume my wife's account has been open for 8 years. If I become a joint account holder on her card, will this negatively impact my score as it is a new line of credit for me with no history (as would happen if I opened a new individual account) or will it register as me having had the credit line for her 8 years? Similarly, would my score go down if her account has only been open 3 years?) Any thoughts or insights are much appreciated!

[SpecFile]

Welcome to the forums.  If you file a joint app with your wife's CC company you will get all of that history and CL and vice-versa.  My wife and I are getting ready to do the same thing. 

[Anonymous]

Joint accounts benefit you both, but if an account ever goes into default then creditors can pursue you both for the debt.

If you're in a community property state (Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin), you might as well make all your accounts joint and reap the benefits. In a community property state, creditors can come after both of you and put adverse TLs on both of your credit reports should the account ever go into default, EVEN IF IT'S AN INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNT!