Getting Married? Don’t Fall For These Credit Myths

When you take your vows and promise to be true in good times and in gloomy days, do you end up saying ‘I do’ to your spouse’s bad credit history as well?

Marriage is a union of two souls and from a financial standpoint, it means saving for the future, buying a dream home or planning for your child’s education. But does it have an impact on your credit score? Your marital status does not mean much in terms of credit worthiness, but there are certain myths that need to be demystified.

· Merging of credit reports will happen
Credit scores and reports are assessments of your very own credit standing. Although marriage unites two souls, it does not unite two credit histories.

· Your new last name will erase your credit history (this one is for the bride)
After marriage, you should ideally report your new last name to all the banks from whom you have borrowed till date. This ensures that your past credit history gets linked to your future one and need not be structured again, from the scratch.

· Your spouse’s poor credit history impacts your credit score
We already know that credit reports do not merge after marriage. Similarly, your credit score will remain independent of your spouse’s credit history. Unless you have taken a ‘joint’ loan and that loan is in default, this will never happen.

· You automatically become an add-on card holder
Getting married does not mean you can leverage your spouse’s credit card and become an add-on card holder by default. Unless you apply for an add-on card, this, too, will never happen.

If marriage is the union of two souls, divorce is the termination of this union. But a divorce can turn out to be an expensive affair. Here is how.

· You are automatically free from your ‘joint’ liability if you are divorced
If you have entered into a joint loan agreement, both of you are on the hook. A divorce does not dissolve the joint liability of repaying a loan. You will remain as responsible for the repayments as you had been when you were married.

So go ahead; there are many reasons to get married but don’t fall for these credit myths.


Satish Mehta is the founder and director of Credexpert, a credit and debt counselling company in India.
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