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Getting married does not impact your individual credit score or merge your credit history with your spouse’s. However, joint credit cards or loans opened during marriage can affect both spouses’ credit. Understanding how credit works after marriage can help you avoid financial surprises and set you up for success as a couple.
Key Takeaways
- Your credit stays separate from your spouse’s after you get married, but joint credit accounts affect both spouses’ credit.
- Making your spouse an authorized user can improve weak credit.
- Community property laws may affect legal responsibility for debts, but not how they appear on your credit reports.
- Couples can work together to improve their credit by correcting errors, ensuring on-time payments, and reducing debt.
Does Your Individual Credit Change When You Get Married?
Your individual credit report and score don’t automatically change when you get married. They remain separate, since credit reports are intended to show an individual’s creditworthiness. Each spouse continues to have their own unique credit file, which is tied to their Social Security number. Individual credit reports will reflect only the accounts where each spouse is named as the primary or joint owner, cosigner, or authorized user.
There is no automatic merging of credit histories, so marriage itself doesn’t affect your credit score. Lenders will still see two different credit profiles when you apply for credit, whether jointly or separately.
Important
Marriage isn’t included in your credit report or score. In fact, it’s illegal for lenders to consider marital status in a credit application.
What Happens if You Open a Joint Account?
You don’t have to open accounts together once you’re married, but doing so can be beneficial in some instances. Opening a joint account during marriage can make it easier to manage household finances, especially for large expenses like buying a home or car.
- Lenders consider both spouses’ incomes to approve joint applications. This may improve your chances of qualifying for higher loan amounts and lower interest rates. However, your spouse’s credit can also hurt your approval odds for joint credit card and loan applications. If one spouse has a lower credit score, this can affect approval odds, interest rates, or loan terms for joint applications. For example, you might qualify for a mortgage but face a higher interest rate than you would if both of you had strong credit.
- Shared accounts affect both spouses’ credit. If you and your spouse apply for a joint credit card or loan, the account will appear on both of your credit reports. Payment history, credit utilization, and account balances will affect both of your scores equally, even if you’ve agreed that only one spouse will handle the payments. From the lender’s perspective, both borrowers are equally responsible.
- Spouses share account responsibility. Because both spouses jointly own the account, missed payments or default can damage both credit scores. Setting up autopay or shared reminders can help ensure payments are made on time. Creditors can go after either or both spouses for any missed payments or delinquent balance.
- Standard credit reporting limits still apply, even after closing the account. Closing a joint account stops activity on the account, but it does not erase the account’s history. Account history will remain on your credit report for the standard credit reporting time limit.
Note
Joint checking or savings and other non-credit accounts do not affect your credit. Only accounts that involve borrowing money will influence your credit report.
How Married Couples Can Improve Their Credit
Marriage offers a chance to set shared financial goals, including improving credit scores. While your credit histories remain separate, couples can work together to strengthen both credit profiles.
- Check your credit regularly: Review your credit reports from all three credit bureaus to see where you stand. Errors like incorrect balances or late payments can drag down your credit score, so fixing them early is crucial.
- Fix negative accounts: In your credit report, highlight accounts that are affecting your credit scores, including late payments, collections, and high balances. Make a plan to tackle these accounts by disputing them if they’re inaccurate or paying them off if they’re still outstanding.
- Pay your bills on time: Your payment history makes up 35% of your credit score, which makes it the most important factor in your credit score. Using a joint calendar to track due dates or setting up automatic payments can help you stay on time with payments.
- Keep a healthy credit utilization ratio: Carrying high balances relative to your credit limits can hurt your score. The lower your balances are, the better your credit score will be. If one spouse regularly uses a high percentage of their limit, consider rearranging expenses or paying down balances faster.
- Lower existing debt: Paying down high-interest debt can improve your credit score and your household’s overall financial health. Consider using the avalanche method or the snowball method to structure your debt payoff.
- Make your spouse an authorized user: If one spouse has weaker credit, they can be added as an authorized user on the other’s credit card to help boost their credit. This way, the spouse with weaker credit can benefit from that card’s positive payment history and low credit utilization.
- Build a healthy credit mix: Having a variety of accounts, like credit cards and installment loans, can help boost scores over time. However, couples should only open new accounts when it fits their financial plan.
Does Marrying Someone With Bad Credit Affect Your Credit?
Not directly. Your credit report and score remain separate after marriage. However, if you open a joint account or become an authorized user on your spouse’s account, their history and habits will then affect your credit.
Do You Share Debt After You’re Married?
It depends on when the debt was incurred, whose name is on the account, and the law of your state.
Each spouse will be responsible for their debts taken out before marriage. Marriage alone doesn’t make you legally liable for your spouse’s existing debts. For example, you’re not responsible for the student loans your spouse borrowed for college before you were married. However, debts you take on together during marriage may be treated differently depending on your state.
In community property states, most debts incurred during marriage are considered jointly owned, even if only one spouse’s name is on the account. Still, these debts will continue to be reported separately on your individual credit reports.
Can Your Spouse’s Credit Score Affect Your Ability To Get a Mortgage?
Yes. When you apply for a joint loan, lenders review both applicants’ credit reports and scores. This means that if one spouse has a lower credit score, it could result in a higher interest rate or denial, even if the other spouse has excellent credit. Some couples choose to have the person with a higher credit score apply alone, but this can limit the total loan amount because only one income is used.
Will Changing Your Name After Marriage Affect Your Credit?
If you change your name after marriage, your creditors will update your accounts, and the new name will appear as an alternate name on your credit report. Your previous name will still be listed. Because personal information like your name or marital status isn’t factored into your credit score, this won’t hurt your credit.
The Bottom Line
Getting married doesn’t change your credit score or merge your credit history with your spouse’s. The decisions you make together can have a lasting impact on both your credit. Open, honest communication is essential for couples, since credit plays such an important role in your financial health. By working together, spouses can build better credit and stronger finances.
