Excessive debt and irresponsible payment history lower a credit score.
Your credit score, or FICO score, is essential for opening accounts, borrowing money, getting low rates and sometimes being hired for a job. A credit score looks at your credit report to evaluate your financial health and responsibility with money with a single number from 350 to 850, with 850 being the best. Applying for joint accounts and loans with your wife can lead to a decline if your wife's score is low even if yours is high. You can boost your wife's credit score over a period of months and years through appropriate financial behavior.
Instructions
1. Request a copy of your wife's report and current credit score. View the report for any incorrect debts, accounts listed as open that should be closed, payments listed as late when you know they weren't, balances listed incorrectly or other errors. Report the errors as soon as possible so that the inaccuracies will be removed from her report.
2. Ask your wife to stop using credit cards or applying for new cards to freeze the ceiling of her existing debt where it is. Making monthly payments to loans and cards should bring debt levels down, but new spending can keep her debt to available credit ratio at a standstill.
3. Make payments to your wife's current creditors (loans, credit cards, etc.) before the due dates and in the minimum amount due or more. Set up bill-pay reminders to ensure the dates aren't forgotten or set up an auto-pay system either through the creditor or your bank's online banking. Catch up on any cards or loans that are behind as soon as possible.
4. Pay off debts as quickly as possible, either by paying them with cash saved in an account to make one final payment or making larger payments each month to pay the balance down faster. Resist the urge to transfer money from place to place because this doesn't pay down the balances. When possible, keep her card balances at 50 percent of the credit limit or less to avoid maxed-out cards.
5. Don't close credit cards she isn't using since this will decrease the amount of available credit she has, making her total debt ratio higher. Instead, leave unused, zero-balance credit cards open to show restraint and keep the credit history open. Request a credit limit decrease if she'll be tempted to spend more than the two of you can payoff within a two-to-three month period.
6. Request a copy of her report and score again after six months to a year of positive spending habits. Look for the score to increase over time and make sure all of the creditor and account information is now correct.
Tags: credit score, your wife, credit cards, available credit, credit limit, Request copy