Spouse Credit Score

[William]

I have a good credit score, but my wife’s score is pretty bad – below 600, because of late payments and other bad credit she accumulated prior to our marriage.

We consider buying a home in a year or so. I was wondering what her score will do to my score?

[Stacy Wall]

Absolutely no connection

There is absolutely no connection between your score to that of your wife’s. Credit reports and scores are personal, and your credit score isn’t connected or correlated in any way to your wife’s credit score.

If you have joint accounts (like mortgage, credit cards, car loan etc) then these accounts will show up on both of your credit reports.

If these joint accounts are current then it will have a positive effect on your credit score and your wife’s. similarly, if the joint accounts are in bad shape then both your scores will drop.

Adding your wife (or you) as an authorized user to your/her’s account has the same effect as a joint account. The only difference is that authorized users have no accountability to the account, while joint account holders do.

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