My wife and I both have good credit that we mostly established before we married each other. We each have our own CC accounts (ironically through the same organization).
My wife’s card had a small balance to pay off which I was going to take care of today. I wasn’t able to because her CC account doesn’t show up in our joint banking bill pay screen. It was a little inconvenient to text her and tell her to make the payment, out of the same account with her login credentials.
Pros
Easily handled by either person, and easier to know where we stand as a family, financially.
Any debt is now owned by the couple; not the individual.
Cons
Any debt is now owned by the couple; not the individual. In the event of a divorce this could be a bad thing; Not likely to happen in my case.
So what’s the general consensus among the SDMB? And also please note if have any credentials or life experience that make your decision hold more or less weight. i.e. financial adviser? Recently got screwed over by ex spouse in divorce over CC Debt?
*I would have thought the word was Financial Advisor; but apparently the preferred spelling seems to be “Adviser,” although either will do.
My wife and I have each others login credentials, so we can just log in and pay bills when necessary. This might be a simpler solution than changing credit card accounts.
What state do you live in? This might not really make any difference. If you live in a community property state, debts are generally community debts. Even if you don’t, during a divorce you may find that you are required to assume some of the debt anyway.
My wife and I each have our own CC accounts, one shared checking account and one shared CC. Most of our common bills are taken care of by the shared accounts, and we each take care of our own stuff (car, personal shopping, etc) from our own. But we were both nearly 50 when we got married so we’re pretty set in our financial ways and neither of us wanted to give up full control. It’s a bunch of cards in our wallets, but it works well for us.
The question is whether having a joint credit card account is good or bad? That became moot a few years ago. Banks no longer offer joint credit card accounts. You can be an authorized user on your wife’s account, but you cannot own the account jointly.
FYI, I live in Georgia. We’ll probably just leave things alone for now. It has never really been an inconvenience. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing out on anything. It sounds like the best solution is to just go with what works for us.
Huh. My card says ‘Advisor’. Where’d you get that info?
In any event, I punch both of those requirements. The FA thing and the spouse/divorce/credit card/screwed thing.
As the others have said, depending on your state - and any prenups you may have signed - your debt may be joint regardless of what names are on the card. I advised a client just last week about that. Her fiancee has terrible credit and a bankruptcy while she has some serious cash. I told her to get a prenup stating what’s what and to whom the cash belongs. I dunno if she’s going to take the advice, but I gave it to her.
And yes, I ate 10s of thousands of dollars in debt during my divorce. I’ll just leave that there.
i.e. financial adviser? Recently got screwed over by ex spouse in divorce over CC Debt?