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Joint account and spouse's bad credit question

8 replies

LuckyPaisley · 21/11/2023 16:43

DW and I have been married a number of years now, have a mortgage together but no other shared finance. She's accumulated a bad credit score through a series of bad decisions money wise. We don't currently have a joint bank account but we need to find a way to manage shared finances and were thinking of a joint account just for bills and child expenses, keeping our own accounts for personal spending. My credit score is high, I have very little credit and low affordability due to being a SAHM for a number of years (just recently gone back to work).

All the advice online says not to get a joint account with someone with a bad credit score as it links you financially. But does this matter when you're already married? I'm assuming it doesn't but don't want to risk my credit score any further.

OP posts:
Floopani · 21/11/2023 16:47

It doesn't matter if you are married, that has no impact on your credit score. You are already financially linked via your joint mortgage. So a joint account probably won't make much difference!

R4R1 · 26/11/2023 01:02

If you get a joint account you will be financially associated to your partner and it will show up on your credit report under final associations

R4R1 · 26/11/2023 01:03

You are not financially linked by the mortgage on your credit report.

MummyMumMumMummy · 26/11/2023 01:06

I have a terrible credit score, I made some really bad choices that have just had a knock on effect years later.

DH has a 999 credit score, very high and is great with money. We took out a joint account about 2 years ago now, we’ve only been married a few months but have the joint account hasn’t appeared to effect his credit score, we did wonder if it would but it hasn’t it’s still 999 😅

R4R1 · 26/11/2023 09:19

That's good to hear mummy.

The way things are going, I wouldn't risk it. It took me ages to remove my ex as a financial link from my credit report.

And as lenders get more stingy and nosey I'd rather protect my credit score.

It should be protected by all means. I screw up on credit and the effect is long lasting.

LuckyPaisley · 26/11/2023 12:18

I know that a joint account will link me to her, what I was wondering is if I'm already linked due to the mortgage and marriage.

I don't understand why a joint account would link me but a mortgage wouldn't.

I wonder if I get my report I can see if we're already linked in the financial associations bit. Might be the best way to go.

Glad to hear it hasn't affected your DH, Mummy.

OP posts:
R4R1 · 26/11/2023 12:58

LuckyPaisley · 26/11/2023 12:18

I know that a joint account will link me to her, what I was wondering is if I'm already linked due to the mortgage and marriage.

I don't understand why a joint account would link me but a mortgage wouldn't.

I wonder if I get my report I can see if we're already linked in the financial associations bit. Might be the best way to go.

Glad to hear it hasn't affected your DH, Mummy.

I don't know why it's like that.

But my wife and sister have a mortgage together for one of our properties. I handled all the admin, built there credits up so I saw everything. They don't appear on each others credit reports.

Mortgage appears as if it's their own.

I had a Halifax account with my ex. We appeared on each others reports under the financial links and associations section.

I used Experian and equifax.

I do not know the extent of the impact of being a financial associate to someone if there credit is good or bad.

Jmaho · 26/11/2023 20:49

You will already be linked financially on your credit report with the joint mortgage

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