I have bad credit and my husband has excellent credit. I am working on paying off my bad debts to clear up my credit. We would like to have a joing checking account but I am afraid my credit will affect his or that my creditors will start bothering him. Can anyone tell me if we need to continue keeping separate checking accounts or can we go ahead and have a joint account.
If your creditors get judgments against you, and you have a joint account, they can take up to 1/2 of whatever is in the account. They can't take more than 1/2 from a joint account unless both of you are their debtors. This is the way it is in California. You should check the laws in your state. I don't know if your state is a community property state - if so, it would probably work like California.
I don't think a checking account will affect your credit score unless you have had a serious amount of NSF charges.
But, if he has stellar credit and is ok with it, have him add you to some of his credit card accounts. That is the quickest way to improve your score, if that is what your ultimate goal is.
Actually joint credit will not effect his credit score either. The only thing you can do that will hurt is credit is joint anything that you do not pay.
If you have a joint account, have garnishments or liens, they can take the money from that account as well.
So if you have your stuff in order - just paying it off and getting back on track - you should be fine...however, if you have judgments, liens, garnishments, etc. then keep it separate until you have it all cleared up!
Good question, I'm thinking of opening a joint account with my daughter who has sketchy credit...interested in the answer to this question.
