Will my credit be effect by my ex partner?

asoe209

Just a quick question really, as the title says will a jointaccount with my ex-partner effect my credit?

I know my credit is not great in terms of cards etc, butever thing is paid on time and I’m working on getting rid of all cards.

My concern now is that with have a joint back account, wellreally it’s just a current account and my name was added onto it when we movedin together.

The account is still active as we used this for all outbills to come out of. And all my bills still come out of this account.

I am not able to close or make any changes to the account,so I wondered if anything that she is doing will affect me? When we weretogether she had debt, now she’s moved I heard she took out another loan and I believeshe is I finical difficulty. Not wanting to sound bad but I don’t want futureplans to e effect by what she is doing.

I came accorss this on Experian, and not sure if this wouldstill apply on an active account.

Credit checks take place these days onpeople and not on addresses, but people can be linked by joint financialactivity, such as in your case when you opened a joint bank account. If arelationship doesn’t work out, it’s a really good idea to review your creditreport with each of the credit reference agencies. If you find any financiallinks between you and your ex-partner, ask for them to be removed. If you don’tdo this you could find that any credit applications you make in the future maybe affected by your ex-partner’s financial situation. To break the link on yourExperian credit report – a process we call ‘financial disassociation’ – simplyuse our online financialconnections questionnaire. We’ll let you know once we’ve broken thelink, or if we need any further information from you.

fermi

If it remains as an active financial link, then yes it could do that.

Tixy

Yes very likely it will.

If she appears as a financial associate on your credit files then any potential lender that performs a credit check on your file will also check hers.

You would need to check the 3 credit reference agencies to see which of them show her as a financial associate.

Whilstever the account remains open in both names you will not be able to get the agencies to financially disassociate the 2 of you.

Really you need to arrange to close the account or see if the bank will allow one of your to have your names removed. You say your bills still come out of this account, so is it just you using the account not your ex? if so why can you not close it/remove one of your names?

Another possible consequence for you - if she has a debt with the same bank as this joint account and falls behind with repayments then they bank could offset funds from the joint account to pay off her debts.

And of course if she remains on the account then she could also withdraw any cash you keep in there (which I guess could then mean your bills will bounce).

asoe209

Yes its just me that uses the account, I ceck things on there from online banking, but I cant make any changes to the account over the phone becasue she is the main name older.

I tried this before and they would not let me do any thing.

MEM62

asoe209 wrote: »

Yes its just me that uses the account, I ceck things on there from online banking, but I cant make any changes to the account over the phone becasue she is the main name older.

I tried this before and they would not let me do any thing.

Then contact your ex, get her to close the account and then you can open one in your own name. If you are no longer together you should not need a joint account. In any case, keeping it is unwise.