Will My Credit Score Affect My Fiance's Once We Are Married?

The short answer to this question is no: getting married won't affect either of your credit scores. However, because married people often commingle their finances, your debts and expenses will often end up affecting one another's credit scores over the years. The most common example is joint debt, where both of you sign for a high-ticket loan like a mortgage or a car loan -- but there are other ways you will affect your spouse. There are also strategies for one spouse to help the other improve his credit score.

Your Credit is Your Credit

The three major credit bureaus report on the credit history of individuals. You have a credit history. Your fiance has a credit history. Once you've been married for 50 years, you will have a credit history and your husband will have a credit history. At no time will there ever be a credit report on the two of you as a couple.

Commingling Debt

Many spouses will apply both of their incomes to get approved for a mortgage, car loan or other high-ticket loan. When this happens, the lender will look at both of your credit histories and make loan decisions based on the worst history or a combination of the two. If approved, what happens with that loan is recorded on both of your credit reports. Because of this, the credit reports of many longtime spouses look almost identical.

A similar practice is co-signing, where one spouse co-signs on the other spouse's loan. The action on that loan appears on both the signer's and the co-signer's credit history.

Debt-to-Income Ratio

When a lender considers giving you a loan, the lender takes into account debt-to-income ratio as well as your credit score. Debt-to-income ratio is the percentage of your current income that you already spend on debt service. If both you and your spouse work, your combined income can make the debt-to-income ratio look very good. However, if one of you has a lot of debt and one very little, it might be better to seek a loan under only one of your names.

Helping Each Other Out

You can use the information above to help improve the weaker of your two credit scores. If you take out a loan in both of your names, and have the more responsible spouse (one is always more responsible) handle the payments, that incrementally improves the lower credit score while not hurting the higher score.

Over the years, alternate which spouse is the primary holder of different kinds of debt. A good credit history shows regularly paid-off accounts of secured, unsecured, consumer and investment debt. Many couples end up with one holding all of one kind of debt and the other holding all of another. If you avoid this, both of you look more attractive to potential lenders.