Wife = Good Credit Score. Husband = Poor Credit Score

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

I just moved from NYC to Washington state a few months ago and became a housewife since.

I used to rent directly from an owner in NYC and was working so there were no applications needed to be submitted and now my husband and I are trying to rent an apartment in Washington state but I received an email saying that my lease was denied eventhough it stated that my score was 715.

However my husband's score is below 513 but he's earning good income. His score is not the best due to past mistakes which isn't resolved because he just found out recently.

The email also stated that I lack rental history. So how am I to go about renting places let alone buying a home when I have decent credit score but my husband has good income with bad credit score?

'Need advice :/

Thanks!

[disdreamin]

I'd walk your spouse over to the rebuilding forum and help him get started cleaning up his file as best you can. I've not had firsthand experience, but it looks to me - from all the reading I've done - like it is entirely possible to make HUGE strides with your credit, depending on what is causing the score to be so low. Other than trying to clean up his reports (and obviously doing everything possible to maximize your scores), I've got no suggestions.

[EW800]

Hello! I don't have a lot of good advice but absolutely agree that having your husband get involved in the Rebuilding Forum is huge! Extremely helpful people. My scores were in the 520-ish range, but now in the 730-ish range in large part to so many people in that forum.

I can relate as far as score differences. My wife had the perfect storm as far as bad life-changing events about four years ago. Our foreclosure never hit her reports, so her FICO scores are all in the 830-ish range, while I am about 100 points lower, but I am about 80% of our income.

Best wishes!!!

[RonM21]

The husband needs to be involved and you can work.on this.together. As suggested, look at many of the threads on here about how to deal with your rebuilding effort.

[grillandwinemaster]

I agree with RM, a team effort is best. However, if you're husband is not too interested, you can become his advocate. With his permission of course. Read all you can from the rebuilding forum and get to work on his as well as yours. You may surprise yourself and end up scraping 800 yourself. 

Best wishes