Marriage and Credit Scores: The Full Story

Let’s start with a little background: When you apply for new loans or credit cards, lenders and credit card providers look at your three-digit FICO score. The higher your score, the more likely you are to qualify for a credit card or loan with a lower interest rate.

Most lenders consider credit scores of 740 or higher to be very good, while scores of 800 or higher are considered excellent. If your score is in that range, your odds of qualifying for lower interest rates are higher. That’s why you want to build the highest credit score possible.

Marriage doesn’t affect credit scores, meaning that your own FICO score won’t change because you marry someone with a higher or lower score. Let’s explore this a bit further.

No shared credit reports

The information that makes up your credit score is contained in credit reports maintained by three national credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. When you get married, your credit score and credit reports remain your own. There is no such thing as combined credit scores or reports for married couples.

This means that if your spouse has flawless credit reports and a high credit score, that will not have a positive impact on your own FICO score. Similarly, if your spouse has a weak credit score and credit reports dotted with late payments and bankruptcy filings, that will not drag down your FICO score.

Why your spouse’s score matters

This doesn’t mean that your spouse’s credit will have no impact on you. If you and your spouse apply for a mortgage or car loan together, your spouse’s low credit score might hurt your chances of qualifying for a loan or credit card with a lower interest rate.

Let’s look at an example. If you and your spouse apply for a mortgage loan jointly, the lender will look at the three credit scores — one from each of the credit bureaus — for each of you. They will then use the lowest middle score as your application’s official credit score.

Here’s what that means: Let’s say you have FICO scores of 740, 780 and 800 and your spouse has scores of 640, 680 and 690. If you were applying for a mortgage on your own, the lender would use your middle score of 780. But because you and your spouse are applying together, the lender will use your spouse’s middle score of 680. In other words, because your spouse’s middle score is significantly lower than yours, you will probably have a higher interest rate on your new loan.

Improving a weak score

Fortunately, you and your spouse can both improve your credit scores.

First, pay all your recurring bills on time each month. These payments, which include your minimum monthly required credit card payment and your mortgage, student, auto and personal loan payments, are reported to the national credit bureaus. If you pay them on time each month, your credit score will steadily increase.

Next, pay off as much of your credit card debt as you can. Your score will rise if you are using less of your available credit.

Taking these two steps can make a big difference to both your and your spouse’s credit health.