My Wife's Credit Problems

[2planka]

The Warden is afflicted by poor credit.

She went through a post-college financial meltdown overextended herself, and got lazy with her bills. Since we've been married I've handled all the bills and purchases. The house and cars are in my name, as are the credit cards, utilities, etc.

My rating is great, hers is poor. What can I do to help her build positive credit history?

Things would be rough for her if I get squished under a bus.

[eric5148]

This (http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/) is the 2+2 of bad credit.

[WEASEL45]

Is it a lot of lates or just high balances. if it is lates, you can call the companies she is late whith and tell them you didnt know you were late and stuff like that. have them send you a letter saying they will take off the lates then send the letter to each of the credit beuraus. its called a rapid dispute. its like $75 per buroe per creditor. PM me if you want more help

[BusterStacks]

Things are going to be rough for YOU now that you are married to bad credit. Please Please Please don't put anything big in her name, especially the house. What I recommend is taking out a loan in her name and using the money to pay it back over the course of a year or two. Rinse and repeat.

[ThaSaltCracka]

yeah can't you use some home equity to pay off her debts?

[2planka]

Been married for three years.

Before we got married we did a financial assessment. Put all the cards on the table and repaid all but two of her student loans. We've been diligent about paying off the accounts and she's been in the clear, so to speak, for over two years. She sees to it that she makes her student loan payments on time each month.

She has no charge-offs, just a bunch of lates. Problem is that she hasn't had any new credit to report since we got hitched.

She's learned her lesson and I like to think that I've given her a good example (pay the cc balances in full each month, use cash/debit whenever possible, set a budget, monitor cashflow, etc.). Now I'd like her to start rebuilding her rating.

[ThaSaltCracka]

maybe a good way would be to put some smaller monthly bills in her name, like the cable bill or the phone bill?

[2planka]

Good suggestion, but do those things (cable, electric, phone) get reported to the bureaus?

[ThaSaltCracka]

I think anytime you are making a monthly payment on something it does. I remember a long time ago, I went to apply for a cell phone and they ran a credit check on me. Because my credit was poor/non-existent, I had to pay a big fee up front. Maybe another way would be to get her signed up for a credit card and have her use it about $50 a month, and make sure you pay it off every month?

[Non_Comformist]

How about a Gas credit card, in which you pay the monthly balance off each month. She could probably get one.

[Leo99]

I've been there and back. She's already rebuilding her credit rating. You don't need new credit to do that. Just not screwing up is good. I used to have excellent credit. Then my wife (ex wife now) went crazy and ran up the credit card bills and forced us into bankruptcy. My credit score fell hard. A year after my bankruptcy was discharged my credit score was 620. Now it's up to 733 (4 years later). National average is around 670. My new wife's rating is 800+ Here's what I recommend you do:

1. get a credit report. They cost like $30 for a 3 agency combinagtion report. It wont' affect your wife's credit score if you pull it yourself.

2. If her score is below 650 I'd wait about 6 months to apply for new credit. Or go for a secured credit card. If it's above that, try to get a Providian card because they give you access to your FICO score every month. She's gonna have to pay an annual fee for the credit card but you have to do that if your score is low.

3. Don't cancel any credit cards. You want a high amount of unused credit.

4. Don't apply for more than one credit card. Each inquiry dings your score slightly.

5. It takes time but it's not that hard. Just do what you're doing and be patient. Her scores will rise.

6. Taking out a car loan can help accelerate it (maybe) but they're gonna zing you with a high interest rate.

7. Utility bills won't help. They don't report unless you screw up really bad. Keep things in your name until her credit improves enough so that you're not paying through the nose in high interest rates. My house is in my wife's name cause she had a high enough FICO score to secure the mortgage by herself.

[JPinAZ]

[ QUOTE ]
1. get a credit report. They cost like $30 for a 3 agency combinagtion report. It wont' affect your wife's credit score if you pull it yourself.

[/ QUOTE ]

Depending on where you live, they're already free.

www.annualcreditreport.com (http://www.annualcreditreport.com)

You'll have to copy & paste the URL, the site won't let you in through a link.

[snakehead]

negative information stays on your credit report for seven years. positive information stays on forever. get reports from the three majors and her credit score at myfico.com. then you will know where she stands.

if she has any credit cards, she should continue using them and paying them off every month. here fico score will improve a little every month. utility bills are not reported to credit agencies, so don't bother. if she doesn't have a credit card, go to your band and get a secured card in her name.

[The Dude]

"The Ultimate Credit Handbook" by Gerri Detweiler is a great book that will tell you everything you need to know, including what happens when people get married (or divorced).

Utility companies don't report to credit bureaus unless they have to take you to collections. Get her a credit card in her name, if she doesn't have one already. Make sure she uses it and pays it off. (Running the balance up to the max, then paying it off is the best.) Also get her a department store card. They are very easy to get and are actually considered a different type of credit account, which will help her. Again, run it up then pay it off - although the likely limit will be in the hundreds. A cellphone in her name would help, too.

Good luck.

[Senor Choppy]

The best way to establish good credit for people in your wife's situation is to apply for store cards, like Old Navy or Target. I believe they're easier to get than normal credit cards (my wife is 0/18374 applying for regular cards but hasn't been turned down for these).

There are a lot of resources online for fixing credit, which mostly involves writing a ton of letters to the credit agencies saying they screwed something up on your credit report, haggling with collection agencies, etc.

[The Dude]

[ QUOTE ]
The best way to establish good credit for people in your wife's situation is to apply for store cards, like Old Navy or Target. I believe they're easier to get than normal credit cards.

[/ QUOTE ]
They are definately easier to get, but they don't go very far in fixing credit. Having one or two will help, but a secured credit card is better.

A small auto loan will do wonders for your credit. A lot of banks are willing to give high interest rate loans for cheap cars. If you buy a $3,000 used car in her name, anybody over 18 can get a loan for 20% interest or so. A paid-off auto loan is the single best thing you can have when trying to establish credit.

[2planka]

Thanks for all the responses. We're looking into getting her a secured card that she'll use for gas and such. Since I pay the bills, the balance will be paid each month.

We also decided to schedule time each month to go through the bills together, so she sees first hand how to manage the budget and learns the routine. It will force both of us to be more organized (I use a simple excel spreadsheet to track everything but she has some ideas about improving it).

It'll take some time, that's all.

[Senor Choppy]

[ QUOTE ]
They are definately easier to get, but they don't go very far in fixing credit. Having one or two will help, but a secured credit card is better.


[/ QUOTE ]

Secured credit cards aren't supposed to be reported to the credit agencies AFAIK. I've heard you can find some that are reported as normal credit cards, but wasn't sure if that was accurate or not.

After receiving a Target card and making payments on time for 2 or 3 months, my wife's account was upgraded to a regular Visa, so I know first hand that this is one path to getting a regular credit card onto her credit report.

[BradleyT]

The first reply to you had all the answers you need.

Everyone else is throwing out half truths. Her credit didn't go bad overnight and it's not going to get better overnight. Spend two weeks on the creditnet forums and you'll have a good idea of what steps you need to take.

I've been a forum member there since 2002 - it's the best board out there for credit issues.

[snakehead]

please point out the half truths in my post.

[andyfox]

You can't get a credit card at a band.

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
She went through a post-college financial meltdown overextended herself, and got lazy with her bills

[/ QUOTE ]

If this was premarital, i wouldn't have married her. Someday ya gotta grow up and learn to pay bills on your own.

Now that you've 'conditioned' her otherwise, good luck.

b