Adding a Spouse to a Credit Card Account

Posted by: Michael S. | Dec 19,2007


If you are interested in adding a spouse to a credit card account, you’ll have a couple for concerns: first will a spouse’s lower credit rating lower yours as well.  Second, will your credit score raise your spouse’s credit rating.  The answers are no and yes, and this is the main reason that you should add a spouse as a joint user on a credit card.  

Even if you both have mediocre credit ratings, it can help overall, as it can add an extra credit account to a spouse’s credit history.  However, this could actually damage a spouse’s credit rating if the credit card account has a history of defaults and over the limit problems.  Really, you should only think about adding a spouse to the credit card account if it leads to an improvement in the spouse’s credit rating.  

There are cases where a spouse might benefit regardless, such as a spouse who has no credit history whatsoever and needs to establish one quickly.  In this case, adding a spouse to the account could have advantages.  In addition, another thing to think about is that adding another person to a credit card account increases the income source, so it could potentially raise your credit limit. At times, though, adding another person to a credit account could have the opposite effect: it could lower the limit if that person has a severely low credit rating.  

Keep in mind also that doing this used to be much easier.  A new user could easily piggyback on another’s credit card account by becoming an “authorized user.”  This will no longer be possible, come 2008, and you will need to file for joint account status for the credit card – a more detailed process in which each person’s credit rating is gauged.  All told, there are more benefits than detriments for including a spouse on a card, but you should really weigh your options.  You may just want to open up a new separate credit card account to start establishing a history using a new card.  

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