Does My Credit Score Affect My Spouse's When We Marry?

Your credit score plays a significant role in your ability to be approved for loans and other lines of credit. Each individual has a credit history based on how their have handled your debt obligations in the past, which is used to calculate your credit score, a number between 300 and 850. The higher your score, the more creditworthy you appear so banks will be more likely to offer you a lower interest rate. Your credit score is based on your credit history alone and is not affected by your spouse's credit score.

Misconceptions

Some people mistakenly believe that getting married will result in your credit scores being combined when you tie the knot. However, just getting married has no impact on your credit score. Not only will you still have a separate credit score from your spouse, your prior financial activities will not play any role in calculating your spouse's credit score in the future.

Factors

Your credit score takes into consideration only the accounts with your name on them and does not include account information that applies only to your spouse. When looking at these accounts, the FICO credit score looks at whether you have paid your bills on time, how much you owe and how large your credit lines are, how long you've been using credit, how much credit you've applied for recently and the different types of credit that you've used.

Joint Accounts

You do not automatically become listed as a joint account holder on all of your spouse's accounts when you get married. However, should you choose to, you can open joint accounts that both of you will be legally liable for. These accounts will appear on both of your credit reports, for better or for worse. Even if only one person uses the accounts all on-time payments and missed payments or defaults will appear on both credit reports, which can have a significant affect on both credit scores.

Considerations

Even though your credit scores do not get merged when you get married, lenders will want to look at both your credit score and your spouse's credit score when you apply for a loan. If your new spouse has a lower credit score, you may end up paying a higher interest rate, or even being denied a loan or line of credit. Before applying for a loan, you should check both of your credit scores for errors and to know what to expect from lenders.

Benefits

Your credit score is solely your responsibility. Getting married cannot provide a quick fix for a bad score or a steep drop for a good score. Lenders do not expect a trip to the alter to magically change your fiscal responsibility for better or worse. In addition, if you end up getting divorced, you will still have a separate credit score from your spouse and you will not have to start all over to build credit from scratch.