Does Getting Married Affect Your Credit Score?

Amidst the many questions of marriage planning, credit score might become a looming query. One of the crucial and most common questions between marriage and credit scores in this case is whether your marriage will affect your credit scores or not.

Even though it doesn't play a crucial role if both the partners have separate accounts, it does become relevant when both of them open a joint account. In this case the credit scores of the individual partners influence the joint account’s credit score. Read along to know more on this.

A credit score is separate for each individual. It doesn’t affect the credit score of your spouse if both of you have separate individual accounts. If you have a low credit score, it is important to improve it further so that the interest rate doesn’t go high. Hence knowing what happens to your credit score when you get married helps in this case.

However, if the couple wants to open a joint account, then separate credit scores become important. In this scenario, the notion of joint credit comes into view. Joint credit helps them to go for large purchases. In this scenario two cases might arise, one is if the spouses carry a bad credit score and if they have good ones. This is what to do in those scenarios.

• What if One or Both of You Have a Bad Credit Score?

In such cases, the couple will have to bear higher interest rates on any loan besides going through the risk of application rejection. The only way to step aside this is by improving a bad credit score. If the credit score lies below or within the range of 300 to 500, it is held to be a bad credit score.

• What if Both of You Have Good Credit Scores?

The advantages of holding good credit scores in a joint account will open doors to many benefits. Maintaining a good credit score individually will help you get the following advantages:

• Get Extended Loan Repayment Tenure: Longer tenures mean lower EMIs. If your credit scores go beyond 700, the lender will consider giving you longer tenures. This will enable you to make money management in a much easier way.
• Hold the Negotiation Power: Since the credit scores are in your favour, negotiating with the lender will be easier. They will not doubt you in giving a loan because you don't hold any risk. You can use this to settle on an option that suits you the best.
• Avail the Discounts: Marriage and credit scores might not always go well together. So getting discount rewards is a big plus point for high credit score holders.
• Get Lower Interest Rates: Better credit scores will help lower your interest rates. This will enable you to pay shorter EMIs for a long time.

If any of you carry a bad credit score while opening a joint account, it might affect you while taking loans. However, if the other person has a good credit score, it will make taking loans much easier.

• Share a Credit Card: This will enable you to get a better credit score because here you will be sharing the history of your spouses' credit score.
• Go Through the Credit Report: Errors in calculating a credit score are common in many cases. This can be resolved by reviewing the credit scores with your spouse.
• Follow a Certain Budget: Good money management skills will help keep track of monthly expenses, reducing unnecessary expenses. Creating a financial planner, in this case, will prove beneficial.
• Pay Off Any Pending Debts: If your partner has debts to pay, it will hamper the credit score of the joint account. If you get into debt later, the bank will reject any loan applications for bad credit scores. Hence improve the credit score by making a chart and clearing off the debts one by one.
• Open a Secured Credit Card: Going over your household budget and opting for a secured credit card can be beneficial in many ways. This type of credit card will help in boosting the credit score faster. Moreover, you can get it done with your spouse or yourself and practice good credit card habits.
• Make an Emergency Fund: Creating a fund for emergency deposits will enable you to use that amount during urgencies. If you save a certain amount of money monthly, you can also pay off the loan during a financial crisis.

Marriage directly doesn’t affect your score as long as you both maintain individual banking accounts. Marriage and credit scores have been a debatable topic for long. However, with proper financial knowledge, one will know that this is only true if a couple opts for a loan jointly.