How will my husband's bad credit history affect mine, now that we're married and looking to buy a house?

Question

My husband's had a very bad credit history before we were married, and mine was excellent. He's working on rebuilding it now, but what can and should I do not to get mine damaged? Is there anything I can do to help him rebuild his?

Answer 1

His credit cannot hurt your credit as long as he is not on any of your accounts. Anyone who says otherwise is incorrect. Your credit scores are affected by how you use and repay your accounts (and several other factors I won't go into now). If he is on some of them, and they are not paid it will hurt both of you. So basically if you want to keep your excellent credit just keep doing what you are doing like paying your bills on time, not having high balances on credit cards, and not having too much credit.

He can fix his credit by first paying off current collections/judgements. Then he should establish some good accounts that show solid payment/management history. A mortgage is the most powerful account you can have so having that on his report will benefit him greatly. Depending on where his scores are, he should recoup them in about a year. He won't get up to where you are in that time but the scores will rise.

It only takes 1 person to qualify to buy a home so try using only your credit and income. If that works, great! You may need his income, if so the lender will put the weight on whomever earns the most $$$. As far as title/ownership, it really depends upon what sorts of bad credit he has. I assume you will keep your mortgage current so there will be no foreclosure trouble. However if he has federal or state liens against him they can cause trouble with the title to your home. A judge can slap additional liens on your property for past unpaid accounts. State law dictates how this would occur but keep in mind the judge doesn't want you to lose your home over a $1000 collection to ABC Credit Card company. It generally takes a lot more past due debt than that to affect your title.

Answer 2

I just went through this exact thing- my new husband and I purchased a condominium last November. Since my credit was excellent and his was poor at best, the mortgage went under my name. Mortgage brokers and loan officers are willing to do just about anything to make that sale- a lot of times what they will do is take the wife's credit score with the husband's income (depending on how long he's been with the job, etc.) That's what we did. It also helped a lot that we did have the actual 20% down payment- they don't dig as deep. THe simple fact is niether one of us would have been able to get the condo without the other even though my credit score is almost double his.
Just because you are married doesn't mean it will affect your credit score. You are still two individual people with two seperate reports. What you do have to be careful of though is getting those joint credit cards- watch what he spends, etc. because THAT could affect you. In our home, I am the one in charge of taking care of all the finances and monthly bills, I would suggest the same to you. That way you always know whats going on. Another tip I have- it is so tempting to just pay all your bills online, but I made my husband get all his pre-marriage credit card bills sent to us in paper form each month so I could monitor what was going on- it might seem harsh, but now that you are married his spending habits could put you in a dark place- not neccessarily with your credit score right away, however if his debt goes up so high that you cannot pay it- then that will affect your score. Hope this helps.
goodluck!!

Answer 3

Only time and good behavior will help his credit rating rebuild. As for buying a house if are applying for a mortgage together you might have some issues if he has bad credit. Your interest rate my be higher or you may be denied altogether depending on what his financial contribution will be toward the loan in comparison to yours. If you are confident he will be behaving responsibly in the future though, you don't have to worry about him damaging your credit. Your credit will be uneffected by his as long as he pay's his bills from now on. Also when signing your home loan there is a way you can write it into the papers that prevents creditors from coming after your house if they are only owed by one of you instead of both of you. I forget the name of the term but it is common and you can ask about it when applying for loans.

Answer 4

You are likely to late in the purchase of a house. 44 subprime leanders are now broke. The housing market is in the crash mode. New loans require a large down payment. Whereas a year ago anyone could float a loan. However people with bad credit such as your husband, are now up the well known creek. The loan will depend totally on your wages.

Answer 5

I was once in that exact situation. To maintain your good credit it would be best to not cosign on any of his credit applications and always keep your credit inquiries down. To get a house, believe me, it would be best to apply in your name(like we did) and use his income as added income/ spousal income. If my husband were to co-borrow on our house, our interest rate would have skyrocketed and we would have had an extra $500.00 to pay on our mortgage. Although having the credit from the house would have increased his score it really would not have been worth it. Don't you think?
To help rebuild his you could allow him to be an additional user on your credit card that will report on his credit score too. That way you will be solely responsible but his score will increase off of your great ability to pay on time.

Answer 6

Don't put anything in his name, not even the title to the house or the car. Take his credit cards away, put everything in yours and do the bills yourself. In a few years, his credit rating will improve, as you file returns jointly and pay bills on time.

Answer 7

IT will Affect YOU BOTH!

Remember when buying a House, they do a Credit Check on BOTH OF YOU!

Question: WHY did you marry someone with BAD CREDIT? Don't you know that Handling FINANCES is an Indicator OF handling LIFE?

[AND, NO, I am not being judgmental, Just FACTUAL!]

Thanks, RR

Answer 8

you are most likely going to buy the house together, i am guessing yo uwould have already bought one if you could have on your own.
you can buy the house on your own and not put him on the title...I am sure he wont go for this..and you should want him on the title as a sign of a shared venture and growth together.
you pretty much own his credit now for when you make joint purchases ie house car etc any individual purchases you can put on your own charge but when they go to do a credit sscore and check your fico fair isacc score they will look at both, most mortgage companies will put the stronger score first on the loan...buying the house together with himon the title is also a great way for him to rebuild his credit.
good luck,

Answer 9

go to get pre approved for your morgage, ask the broker to run the application two ways, one jointly, one with just you. Last year when we bought our house it was better for us to have my husband on the morgage alone because I had no credit history.

Since then my husband got a store card with my name on it. After a few months I was able to get my own store card. In a few more months I will apply for my own bank credit card. Then we will try to refinance with both our names. Just make sure that all the bills are paid on time.

Answer 10

This is a serious matter, consult a credit counselor for solid facts. Until then don't put him on your credit accounts and you don't dare get on his. Good Luck.