Are you worried your fiancé’s debt will become yours once you’re married? Knowing what you’re financially reliable for can be a smart decision to make before you do anything rash with your finances. Read on to learn how debt is handled before and after marriage. 

Debt Before Marriage

Does your fiancé have debt? Well, the good news is that before you are married, your fiancé’s debt is only their responsibility. Their debt incurred before marriage, so it can’t affect you in any way. If they are in significant debt with their student loans, then that debt won’t affect you at all. However, some extenuating circumstances could make it your problem. 

Did you help co-sign anything for your fiancé? If you sign for them on a title loan or other loan product, then you are liable by law to help pay that loan off. Co-signing for your fiancé or anyone else is serious, so you might want to think it through before you risk it. Your credit score could be affected if they say they’ll pay it and don’t. 

You can also be liable if you have a joint credit card account together. Both of your credit scores can be affected if you have a joint credit card account with them and get into debt. This means that even if your fiancé was the only one using a credit card, you would be just as susceptible to repaying that debt off and negatively impacting your credit score. It doesn’t matter who uses what or who’s idea it was to have a joint credit card account. 

Debt After Marriage

You will no doubt incur debt with your spouse if you apply for a loan or credit card together and don’t pay your bills on time. However, there is an exception if you live in these nine community property states:

• Arizona
• California
• Idaho
• Louisiana
• Nevada
• New Mexico
• Texas
• Washington
• Wisconsin

Married couples who live in these states automatically share debt no matter what. It doesn’t matter if only one of you agreed to something, you are both liable to repay the debt as long as it occurred while after you were married.

Will My Marriage Affect My Credit Score?

.Are you also worried that getting married to someone in debt will affect your credit score? The good news is that it doesn’t. Their credit score and yours won’t increase or decrease based on each other’s credit scores. A married couple can’t share a credit score or credit report. 

However, if you are planning on getting a loan for a new house together, then your spouse’s low credit score could impact whether you get it or not. This could be tricky since the loan … Read the rest