Yahoo! Finance just featured a story on a little-known aspect of getting married, right in time for wedding season: When you get married, will your credit score suffer? Author Constance Brinkley-Badgett talked to me about my own experience. When I married Kristy, her credit was horrible. There was no other word for it. Getting married won’t impact your own score unless you decide to help them out, which many spouses do.
I was 31 when we got married and knew about her financial woes. She had been unemployed, I knew, and I assumed there might be a few bumps from that. I figured she’d be in debt. However, we didn’t talk about the details. It was after we were married that I learned she didn’t make her car payments when she lost her job, her car got repossessed, and she’d also missed student loan and credit card payments. Her score was in the 400s, which meant she couldn’t even get utilities on her own.
Ultimately, I took over the finances and gave her an allowance to teach her money management. However, I still needed to co-sign on any loans, including getting her a car. Ultimately, my credit suffered, too, but not too badly.
Credit.com’s blog also picked up the story. Read it in its entirety here.
