Marriage and Credit
Can Marriage Ruin Good Credit?
By Daniel Muniz

Below is a comment from someone who has really bad credit:
 

I am engaged and my fiancé is telling me that if we got married my [bad] credit will ruin his credit. His credit score is 780.

First of all, this assertion is totally false.

A credit report from a credit bureau or Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) is a profile only on one person. That’s it!

Just because you are married doesn’t mean that a credit bureau reaches into your spouse’s credit profile to combine its data or average out a credit score. Such a premise is absurd although part of this misunderstanding stems from a lack of knowledge of what a CRA really is.

As I have mentioned time and time again, a credit bureau is not the government. They do not have any governmental or police powers. In fact, the CRAs are not even closely monitored by the government like the way a bank is. They are private businesses that make money by selling your credit report to anyone who has cold hard cash; as long as they have your permission. There is nothing that they do that is official, authorized, or sanctioned by the government.

And just like any other private business, the CRAs have to obey local, state, and federal laws, especially the ones regarding personal privacy. As a result, marriage does not allow a CRA to combine your spouse’s credit information with yours. A credit report will always be about one person.

Now that is not to say that there will not be an inherit fear of doing something to ruin your spouse’s credit rating. But that is an action done by a person, not by a credit bureau. You would have to do something to trash your spouse’s credit but your bad credit alone has nothing to do with it.

For instance, suppose that you have a joint account with your spouse and you are the one who handles the finances for it. And then you either make late payments or stop paying altogether. That will definitely hurt your spouse’s credit score because both of you are entirely responsible for that credit item regardless of who botched the payment.
 

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But the whole point of that example is that you have to have ownership of an account with your spouse.

Now there are plenty of people who have allowed their spouses to ruin their credit. Some individuals are genuinely terrorized or tormented by their spouses and really have little control over their own credit or financial situation.

But many others are simply irresponsible. They tend to play a victim’s role in deferring all the blame to someone else. The moment you sign a contract with your spouse or with anyone else, you are totally liable for that account even if you are not the one personally involved in ruining it. And if you are unsure about the character, integrity, or trustworthiness of your spouse, then don’t sign the contract.

Overall, a joint account is a marital issue, not a credit one. Even divorce does not end your obligations although some people tend to think that they are not responsible for their ex’s bad credit behavior.

So marriage alone will not ruin a spouse’s credit score.

There is nothing that gets combined or added on when you get married unless you agree to it. And you always have the ability to say no or to refuse signing a contract for a joint account.

However, with someone having a high score of 780, it is quite easy to imagine being apprehensive or even suspicious about the future especially if the person that you are going to tie the knot with cannot even qualify for a mortgage to a doghouse.

And it is very understandable for someone to feel a bit shortchanged because he or she worked hard, played by the rules, and exercised responsible credit behavior, yet they are going to spend the rest of their life with someone who has shabby credit.

Again, that is solely a marital issue.

Not every credit decision has to be done as a joint account. It is completely possible to live married life entirely by having separate accounts. It happens every day with millions of people. Even big-ticket items can be purchased solely by one person, such as a mortgage or a car. There are some pushy creditors that angle for joint accounts but your decision can simply be an emphatic no.

But such a fear that marriage will ruin credit is only that: fear.

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