Does Marriage Affect Your Credit Score?

When you say "I do" and sign your marriage license, you make a legal change that affects many areas of your life. Although getting married does not change either of your credit scores immediately, the steps you take together as a married couple could impact both of your credit scores.

Separate Credit Scores

Marriage does not directly impact your credit score. Your credit scores are not averaged into one joint credit score. After you get married, you and your spouse still maintain entirely separate credit reports and credit scores. Therefore, the act of getting married does not change anything about your credit. You still have all of the positive and negative credit history from your past.

Moving Forward Together

After you get married, you and your spouse might join your finances in a few ways, including opening joint bank accounts, credit card accounts and loans. Any joint account you have will consider both of your credit scores and will appear on both of your credit reports. If the spouse with good credit habits manages these accounts, both of your credit scores will benefit as you add positive credit history to your files.

Mortgage Considerations

One significant way in which credit scores often come into play after you get married is when you and your spouse want to buy a home together. If you will be relying on both of your incomes to qualify for the mortgage, both of your credit scores will be used to determine the terms of the mortgage and the interest rate you will pay. If one of you has bad credit, consider applying for the mortgage under only the name of the spouse with good credit. Although you might not qualify for as large of a mortgage, you will likely get a better interest rate than if you applied together.

Tips for Credit in Marriage

If a spender marries a saver, disagreements over how to spend, and especially how to manage debt, are common. Before getting married, discuss how you plan to manage your finances as a couple. Consider whether to maintain separate accounts or whether to join your finances completely. Be honest about the debt you are bringing into the marriage. Make a plan for who will manage each account and pay each bill to avoid letting anything slip through the cracks and damage your credit. Most importantly, discuss decisions that will significantly impact your household's finances, such as taking out a new loan or making a large debt payment, rather than handling them independently.