Do your credit reports get merged when you get married?
SHORT ANSWER:
No, each spouse maintains their own individual credit report.
THE NITTY GRITTY:
Getting married to your partner means combining most aspects of your life and that includes your finances. However, while it’s important to talk to each other and be fully aware of each other’s financial situation, getting married does not mean that you combine credit reports.
Each individual maintains their own credit report with the accounts they had prior to entering the marriage. Your credit history contains only the information that is reported to the CRBs in your name.
WHAT ABOUT JOINT ACCOUNTS?
If you become a joint account holder (or in some cases an authorised user) then any credit report entries related to that account will appear on both you and your partner’s credit reports even if it occurred before the marriage.
You will always have your own individual credit reports, but both of you will be responsible for a debt incurred on joint accounts even if you aren’t the one who did the spending, and in the coming CCR reporting environment, a missed repayment on a joint account may also negatively affect both of your credit reports, and vice versa if one of you has a poor credit history, a joint account with a positive repayment history added to their name may positively impact their credit report.
WHAT ABOUT JOINT LOAN APPLICATIONS?
If you start applying for joint loans (eg. Home or car loan) as is common when you’re starting your new combined life, the lenders will require both of your incomes and credit histories (plus all their other application requirements) to be taken into account when assessing your application.
This can be important to consider before applying for any loan because if, for example, one spouse has a poor credit history which leads to the application being denied, the credit enquiry will be recorded on both of your credit reports and may impact them both negatively.
Your new married life is a partnership, and both of you should work to improve your credit history together but not at the expense of damaging the other’s credit history while doing so.
CAN WE HAVE A JOINT CREDIT SAVVY ACCOUNT?
No, while we encourage you to talk to your partner and be aware of each other’s financial situation and credit history, the security of your information is extremely important to us and we’re dedicated to protecting your personal information through encryption, monitoring and identity verification.
Given the personal nature of the service and that each individual will have their own credit file, we want to make sure that only you are able to access your account. This means we don’t facilitate merged accounts, in fact you can’t even open two Credit Savvy accounts using the same email.
We require a unique email address for each account, so if you usually share an email inbox, you will have to set up a new email address for one of you or you can use your Facebook or Google account details provided it is not attached to that same email address.
We just want you to feel safe and secure giving us your personal data.
Has your partner checked their credit score? They can do it for free right now at Credit Savvy!
Getting savvy before your big day? You might also be interested in our article: 9 ways to avoid a wedding budget blowout.
