I Married into Poor Credit...Now What?

by Kelly McCready

When you get married, you are taking on joint financial liabilities. This is a fact, like it or not.
Just because you fell in love with someone who has destroyed their credit, doesn’t mean you have to live with it. However, you probably have to help fix it. If your spouse has poor credit, it can affect your joint credit accounts and potentially prevent you from opening certain accounts or receiving certain loans. In fact, until you straighten out your spouse’s credit, you may want to just avoid signing up for joint accounts. First things first, let’s get your spouse’s credit back on track!

Here are a few steps to help guide you:

1. Come up with a manageable budget to pay off any outstanding debt. If you struggle coming up with the cash to make payments, take into consideration daily or weekly habits that could be stopped (i.e. coffee in the morning, buying lunch while at work, ordering out for dinner), or redirect your spouse’s 401k contribution toward paying off the debt.
2. After some debt has been paid down, sign your spouse up as an authorized user on a credit card account. This will help build their credit back up.
3. Check credit reports annually. This is more of a maintenance step, but it is very important. You need to keep an eye on things. Mistakes do happen, and if you’re on top of things, you can catch them.