How to Build Credit in Marriage 💍 | Consolidation Tips & Low Credit Score Hacks 🔑

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is the other part, because we talk about the things that credit can affect, right? Obviously, your score, but it could affect loans and sometimes employment. But it also could affect relationships. This is important, right? Because you said you need to have maybe three to four items on your credit report, and some people, when they're in relationships, we've seen, I'm going to get a car, I didn't get approved, can you co-sign?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:23)
I love this. Y'all asking a good question. This is why, yeah.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:27)
We've been known to do that a few times. So talk about that.
I mean, co-signing could be very detrimental.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:35)
So one of the things that I do in my day-to-day is, I'm a credit specialist specializing in mortgage scoring, right? So I deal with a lot of people who can't seem to close on their home who need a few more points to obtain a home loan.
Now, this is one of the things that I see so much, and we need to change it. So when it comes to married couple spouses, make sure that the accounts are evenly distributed, right? So make sure that one spouse is not the primary account holder, account owner of all of the accounts, and then the other spouse, usually like the stay-at-home spouse, is just co-signed on all of the accounts. There is something within the Credit Card Act of 2009 that says on every credit card application legally, you can use what's called household income. So if you're a spouse, if you have a spouse that maybe does not make a lot of money or stays at home, as opposed to them just being a co-signer and authorized user on all of Spouse's One accounts, they can apply using the income. They can apply using their spouse's income. So make sure that they still have credit cards, not home loans, but loans and installments in their name as owner, because when you only have co-signed accounts, authorized user accounts, then you're never going to unleash your true borrowing power, because it's based on someone else, regardless of who it is. So make sure, yes, I'm glad you asked that question, because that, man, that happens so often. Like it'll just, it'll be, one person has great credit, and then one person has subpar credit, because they don't have any, they haven't built any credit.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:14)
Yeah, and that's if you're married. If it was your girlfriend, your boyfriend, and you broke up, good luck.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:20)
Oh, well, yeah, to speak on that. Co-signing, no, no, no, no. I won't co-sign. I'm not co-signing for nobody. Because that affects you, like if you co-sign for someone, and you can have amazing credit, if they choose to not pay it, or run up your card, you are responsible for that. When it comes to co-signing, when it comes to authorized users, authorized users, they don't have any legal binding to that account. So they can run it up, they can spend every dollar, and it still is going to be your fault.
When you co-sign for someone, if that account goes derogatory, it's going to affect both persons' credit report. And you can't do nothing about it.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:00)
So what about credit consolidation? Is that always the most beneficial way to kind of manage multiple?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:06)
No, it's not.
That chips away at your credit age drastically. So now, like, when it comes to, like, student loans and things of that nature, sometimes that it's worth it, right? But when it comes to just consolidating your everyday credit cards, I don't always recommend it unless, like, you're just trying to prevent bankruptcy or something like major like that. But consolidation, I'm not the biggest fan of, just because it doesn't really aid to you improving your barring power.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:38)
So if people will have bad credit and they're trying to improve their credit, what's the steps to actually go from, you know, having issues, bad credit to having better credit?

**SPEAKER_2** (3:49)
Yes, the good thing about having bad credit is, you have a lot of points that you can obtain. Like the lower your credit score is, the more points you can grab, right? So my favorite thing when helping someone with their credit is when they do have a low credit score, because it's so easy to get those points. You just have to understand that obtaining those points will not come from just repairing your credit or disputing your credit report. It's going to come from building credit. That is where the points are released from, right? So making sure if you have bad credit, if you have collections chargeouts, whatever, there is nothing that will help you other than building credit, making sure that you have those four accounts, two credit cards, two installments, one short term, one long term, making sure you do not pay off that installment early, the short term installment specifically, because you want to build credit, right?