Ask Terry Questions In ref to that answer about student loan debt ruining credit of married woman

In ref to that answer about student loan debt ruining credit of married woman

By Terry Savage on June 04, 2016 | Credit/Debt

In reference to the above topic, if the woman would have initially filed her own tax return (so both parties filed separately), would her credit have been ok then (left untarnished)?

Terry Says:  That all depends on whether their credit was co-mingled in some other way.  If they had jointly signed for an apartment rental, an electric utility account, etc, their credit reports might have been joined.  Additionally, it costs more to file taxes in the “married filing separately” category!  Eventually, something would trip them up and impact her report as well as his.  But if might not have been caught that first year of filing taxes separately.

My advice to all couples is to check each other’s credit report BEFORE marriage.  It might not be a deal-breaker for your marriage.  You might simply want to postpone the event and deal with the credit issue.  But the very fact that this issue came as a surprise, and that it is such a HUGE issue, leads me to believe that this marriage will not survive. After all, if you can’t trust each other enough to reveal these issues before the wedding day, what other issues might arise?  Trust is the basis of an ongoing relationship — and it’s hard to rebuild, once violated.

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