Spouse credit score

lowermyrate · ‎07-04-2007

I'm about to get married in one month, and my soon to be wife credit score is worst than mine. I doing everything possible to raise it. I'm at 580. And started goodwill letters and disputes on my own. We her score effect mine once we are married. We have no joint accounts together

SoulSmilen · ‎07-04-2007

lowermyrate wrote:
I'm about to get married in one month, and my soon to be wife credit score is worst than mine. I doing everything possible to raise it. I'm at 580. And started goodwill letters and disputes on my own. We her score effect mine once we are married. We have no joint accounts together

No, it won't affect your score; you each have seperate credit files. If, and when, you have joint accounts, only those accounts will report on both files.

Anonymous · ‎07-04-2007

So long as you maintain separate accounts, one spouse's credit will not impact the other spouse's credit.

The exception to this rule is in community property states. Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.

In a community property state, if an account goes into default, even if it's an individual account, the adverse TL might be legally reportable on BOTH spouse's CR.

If either you or your betrothed, once married, apply for an individual credit account of any kind, should it go into default then it definitely can get reported on both your CRs. The account was obtained inside the martial community (after marriage) so the bad TL belongs to both. Both spouses could be sued, even if you later divorced and regardless of what the divorce decree said.

Because you are going INTO a marriage, and don't yet have any joint accounts, should one of your existing individual accounts go into default in the future after you're married, as the marital community benefits then it becomes reportable on both CRs. If it goes into default 2 days after you're married, it probably would be tough to prove the marital community benefited from this account. However, I suspect most creditors are going to exercise caution, and most might not know about community property. You'd likely only run into this with a partially nasty CA or a collection lawyer who knows the community property statutes and caselaw.

FICOnater2007 · ‎07-05-2007

Dear Newlywed-To-Be,

Good luck with the wedding, etc.!

One thing to bear in mind is that anytime you have a credit card and request a copy of the same card for her, she will "inherit" that account on her credit report. The same goes with you if she gets a duplicate card issued in your name. That account will be posted on your credit, regardless of who opened the account initially. This happened with me and my wife.

Therefore if you have good credit, it might help hers if you get one of your cards issued to her as well. However, better known whether or not she's a "spender" beforehand.

Some people may tell you to keep your finances totally separate. That's fine, but can easily lead to a YourMoney vs. HerMoney spat at some future date. If you guys are in this for the long haul, then co-mingling accounts, etc. is fine -- but I'd get a credit expert to advise you.

FICOnater2007