Joint accounts with fiancee - she has a default in her credit history

Chris5281

Hi,

Apologies if this topic has come up a lot before, but a search throws up a lot of conflicting information. Also, apologies if this is the wrong forum.

In two months time I am getting married, and I will be moving in with my fiancee shortly before that. Our plan was to get joint accounts, mainly for reasons of convenience. We envisaged a joint current account for household bills, a 'joint' credit card (or rather, a credit card with an additional authorised user) for weekly expenses, and we would retain our personal accounts for pocket money. Since we have a lot of big expenses in the next couple of months (furniture and the like) we thought we would take advantage of a 0% interest card, even though we do have the savings to cover those expenses.

Anyway, my partner went ahead and applied for the credit card, and was declined. On further investigation we found a default in her credit history in 2006. This was later settled, but apparently this will remain on her record until mid 2012.

I would stress that I have no personal qualms about amalgamating our finances. She is a much better money manager than me, and the default was due to a bad choice of partner in the past rather than bad money management on her part. However, my credit history is good, as far as I know, and so we are both concerned about contaminating it by having a financial association.

So, four questions

1) We will be renting at first, and while we have no immediate plans to go for a mortgage, I imagine it would be advisable we wait out the 18 months until she has a clean record?

2) Is a joint current account a bad idea at this time? It would not be a massive hardship to do without - it would just mean more shuffling around of money and one person having to take more responsibility for bills.

3) The joint credit card is something I am less clear on. As I understand it, if I apply for a credit card and name her as a card holder, her credit rating is not taken into account and no association will appear on our credit reports. Is this correct? Is it always correct, or should I read the small print? Is it safest just to keep a credit card in my own name only?

4) Household bills - I see in the advice on the main site that joint utility bills shouldn't cause us to be financially linked, but would it be safest to keep everything in one or the other of our names? Of course, both our names will be on the tenancy agreement, but there's not much we can do about that. Surely this won't cause us to be linked though - otherwise I would be linked with every flatmate I had through university!

Any advice much appreciated.

Chris

Rafter

Hi Chris,

1) It does look as if you have more chance of being accepted and getting a decent rate if you wait until the default has dropped off and presumably your own credit rating has improved.

2) No right or wrong answer here. If one person is better at managing money it might make sense for them to pay bills from their account and tell the other how much they owe rather than necessarily having a joint account.

3) That is my understanding too. You are wholy responsible for the additional card holder and therefore no search or financial association.

4) Generally it is only joint mortgages, insurance and current accounts that create a financial association but might be safest to keep things separate just in case.

Good luck

R.

KingElvis

I would steer well clear until that default goes the way of the dodo, love may pay the bills but it doesn't mean jack to a credit application.

Computers don't have emotion chips.

Watalie

Agree with KingElvis - Steer clear of joint accounts until her credit record is clean.

Although joint savings accounts are fine you won't be financially linked. My OH & I have current accounts at Barclays and one Savings account. We just transfer money between ourselves via that and it's instantaneous.

Good Luck with it.

Chris5281

Thanks all for the responses, it seems the consensus is to keep everything separate for the time being. It is after all only a minor inconvenience to have to shuffle money around a couple of separate accounts.

Thanks again!

edinburgher

My fiancee and I are in exactly the same situation as you and your fiancee (we're getting married this year, considering joint finances but I have a default from 2006 and also looking to buy in the next 18 months).

Anyway, long story short, we've made exactly the same choices. We're waiting 'til my default goes in 2012 before getting joint accounts for household stuff (keeping our own accounts for pocket money) and I'm going to be added as a second cardholder on her credit card account in case of emergencies. I do have my own credit card, but the limit is paltry.

Utility bills won't create an association, neither will rental agreements (I've been renting for 10 years).