Wither thou go-est...into credit problems?

December 1, 2006 9:00 AM

Help! I need tips for cleaning up my credit before I get hitched.

I have "not-good" credit; not particularly bad, but definitely not good. My debt is probably around $1200, between owed charge-offs and fees. I’ve been paying off my debt as quickly as possible; the creditors are sadly quite unhelpful, not sending me invoices when I request them (either by mail or fax), or sending me notices when I have paid off the debt(s).

My fiancée has good/very good credit. I don't want my smelly credit to stink up her good credit when we get married.

She wants to marry me ASAP in a civil ceremony (we'll still get married "for real" in front of family next year) so that I can benefit from her great health insurance. As I have at least two major undiagnosed medical conditions for which I could most definitely use health insurance; I’m all for that, with the caveat that I clear up my credit and get a clean report from all three major credit agencies prior to tying the knot.

She’s keeping her last name, and I think we’ll be filing taxes separately next year (and possibly future years, but that’s a question/discussion for another time).

Questions:

- What are the “time factors” regarding credit and marriage?
- How soon do you show up as a “couple/married/joined credit file”, if such things exist?
- Does the fact that she won’t be using my last name affect that sort of thing?
- Could we get married, with me continuing my current credit cleaning pace (my goal is to have all charge-offs/amounts owed paid by February), and not have her be affected by my credit?

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

posted by weirdoactor to work & money (10 comments total)

Your past credit does not affect each other. The only way to affect each other's credit is to sign up for a joint account, like a credit card with a signatory and a co-signatory. In that case, the history of the joint credit card goes on both your and your spouse's credit history.

From the link:

There is nothing that gets combined or added on when you get married unless you agree to it.

The credit bureaus are not government agencies, so even though your taxes are filed jointly, your credit scores are still independent entities. So, even if one of you royally screws up your own credit score after you're married, unless the late or missed payments are on a joint account, the other party will not be affected by it.

Now go get married, get some insurance, and be happy.
posted by stewiethegreat at 9:17 AM on December 1, 2006

Stewie is right, your credit is your and has nothing to do with your wife unless you have a joint account.

Also, your credit situation should have no bearing you being added to your wife's insurance after getting married, assuming you are in the US.

$1200 does not sound like an unmanageable sum to get paid off, the wife and I are currently in the last few months of paying off >$25k of credit debt, and simply paying all of your bills on time will significantly improve your credit.

You may want to starting reading up on credit to get a firmer grasp on how credit information is collected and reported. I've always found the columnists at MSN Money to be highly informative (Liz Pulliam Weston and MP Dunleavey I particularly like) and I am sure there are a number of other sites that provide the same services.

Good luck, and congrats on your marriage.
posted by caflores22 at 9:34 AM on December 1, 2006

The only way your past credit will (slightly) affect her is in those few situations where a creditor cares about both individual reports (e.g. landlord). But it's not likely to be a big deal, since usually one solid co-signer is sufficient. And it's not like your history is so bad that it'd be foolish to do that.

You're not hurting her. Go be happy.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 9:38 AM on December 1, 2006

If and when you do pay creditors, make them do a "Pay for Deletion." Otherwise they'll just mark it as "Paid" and while that sounds good, often it can 'reset the clock' so it'll just sit on there for an additional 7 years.

See if they'll delete. And get everything in writing. Then make sure that they *do* delete everything and don't just mark it as "settled."

$1200 is really nothing to get rid of, if you really think about it.
posted by drstein at 10:34 AM on December 1, 2006 [1 favorite]

Thanks for all the advice; especially the "Pay For Deletion" note!
posted by weirdoactor at 10:47 AM on December 1, 2006

Re-establish your credit by getting a new card, putting only a little on it and paying it off on time and in full every month.

If the issuers won't give you a regular card because of your payment history, get a secured card. That is, put a small amount (say $1000) in a frozen account and get a card with a $1000 limit, secured by the deposit. Once again, pay it off on time and in full. In a year or so, this record will greatly increase your credit rating.
posted by KRS at 11:25 AM on December 1, 2006

You can't MAKE them do a pay for deletion and they hate doing it - part of their sthick is to claim they HAVE to report EVERYTHING and the only thing you can do to Make Things Better is give them money. They conveniently misinterpret the requirement of the FCRA to always report accurately as a requirement to always report.

Usually you get a PFD when you have some leverage, which you may not have. You may want to spend some time looking through DebtorBoards.com and see if anyone has any constructive advice for you. I don't know what the requirements are for validation in IL but maybe you can still demand it from them and determine if there's anyone trying to get money from you with poor documentation who you can then hold over a barrel.
posted by phearlez at 11:35 AM on December 1, 2006

The general procedure is to send a "Debt Validation" letter, of which several can be googled, or I can send you one I've used, which asks for further contact to be exclusively through mail, and asks for specific proof of the amount or debt and their claim to collect. If they don't respond properly and promptly, you then have a FCRA claim against them that you can hold over their head, and if they don't respond at all, you can then go through the process to have the credit bureau delete the item. creditnet.com is another place to go for info.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 1:31 PM on December 1, 2006 [1 favorite]

Correct. You cannot "make" them, and that is unfortunate. You can ask them and see if they agree to it. Many creditors will. But many will not. You have to get it in writing.
posted by drstein at 8:11 PM on December 1, 2006

He can request validation but the law is only explicit about the actions within the 30 days of initial notification. You can ask after 30 days but the requirement for them to then immediately cease collections activity until they provide validation (the usual FCRA claim from that kind of thing) no longer exists at that point.

The 9th circuit (CA, etc) has even eviscerated the law such that you may not be entitled at all to validation after the 30 day window, and other circuits have made other similarly crap rulings, though not as sweeping.

None of which is to say you shouldn't still request an accounting, but be aware your rights are not as sweeping after-the-fact as they would be immediately upon their starting collections activity.
posted by phearlez at 7:51 AM on December 4, 2006