How will marriage affect my credit score? Do our scores “average” or do we both take the lower score?

Supermom: How will marriage affect my credit score? Do our scores “average” or do we both take the lower score?
We’re getting married in the near future. We both own homes and work full time, but my income and credit scores are better than his. Should I buy our house before we get married and keep our finances totally separate? Will that protect my excellent credit rating? Or will my rating drop to his level once we’re married no matter what? (I live in a marital property state.)

What’s better, qualifying for a mortgage alone on my income and credit rating, or waiting until we’re married with our joint income but a combination of our credit ratings? How do banks approach these situations? Thanks!

Answers and Views:

Answer by Phil
both of your credits are seperate…they always will be

Answer by kam_1261
No they stay seperate until you both have a joint venture together.

Answer by missyhardt
You still keep your seperate credit scores. When you have accounts in both names, it will be reported on both reports (good ro bad as the case my be). Most places will allow you to use he better credit score with combined income to be approved for a loan or new account. Getting married will not affect your current score.

Answer by Barrister
I thing both off you should combination you income’s over in ireland it dose not mather what you income rate is sorry .

Answer by dat3o5chica
your credit scored will always stay separete even if you marry someone. so dont worry about anything. just try to keep your credit good.

Answer by steve s
Your credit score will not be affected by your spouses. It is kept separately unless he puts you on a card or loan that he defaults in. I advise my clients to never do joint accounts in case the above happens. Obtaining a mortgage is based first on who makes more money you or him then second goes with the middle of 3 credit scores. Many lenders look at the lead borrower’s credit score and ignores the co-borrower. While some lenders will take the lower middle score of both borrowers.

You must ask yourself this Do you make enough money to qualify for a mortgage on your own? Since you both own your homes prior to your marriage to each other your mortgage history will be taken into consideration as well. If you need anymore information you can email me or visit my web site at Free Mortgage Helper.com for many of the free articles that I have listed including the ones I wrote. You can apply on line too.

Answer by Abbi G
Most lenders do not use “merged” credit bureaus to qualify their applicants. They can usually use the higher of the two. A positive aspect of this is that now the two of you have a “joint” account that will begin to report to the credit bureau. If you are in charge of making sure that payment is made on time every month then this account could increase his score and not adversely affect yours. My only concern is that now that you are married, living under the same roof, and contributing jointly towards bills and such…how will his financial situation affect your livelihood? I would want to make sure that you would not be affected so much as to start conforming to his bad bill paying habits.

Also, I don’t feel it is good practice to “shop” the bureaus. Mortgage brokers will do this in hunt for the best score because they are normally dealing with clients who might have difficulty getting approved. Brokers are independent of lenders. They normally have higher fees, closing costs ect because this is where their income comes from. If your credit score is high enough then go to bank itself. There fees are normally lower and rate could be better in the long run. The bank does not have to charge higher fee because most of the income is earned off of interest. The downfall…the bank takes longer to get an approval. Salaried & hourly employees that do not see the urgency of your application b/c they are not incented by commission as brokers are.

You score is not affected by what kind of property state you live in. That applies to personal property; real estate is different.
I believe this may be your concern…
Consider this. You’re not married and you both are listed as owners on the Deed. He has children from a different marriage and you do not. If he passes away unexpectedly then half of the value of the home will automatically go to his children. You now own your house with his children and must pay them off if you ever sold the house or moved. If you were married then 100% of the value is legally yours. Take that as you will. Estate planning, Wills, correct real estate titling, ect allows you to make that decision in that event that happens. Ask your banker about titling “tennants in common” or tennants by the entirites” in the event you purchase real estate outside of marriage. I can’t recall the legal meaning but with the correct terminology you should be able to purchase real estate outside of marriage and legally own it as a married couple under those laws.