Do you and your H/SO have separate credit cards? H and I do. But I'm wondering if we should get rid most of them and just share. Or is this a bad idea?
We sit down together and divide up, line by line, joint vs personal purchases. We had them before we were married and see no point in combining. Plus we earn rewards and spend our points differently.
We mostly have our own, but he's an authorized user on two of mine.
I don't know that truly joint credit cards exist any more -- if they do, they're rare (most cards have the option of a primary cardholder and an authorized user). So I think it makes sense for both of us to have and use separate cards so we're both maintaining strong credit scores. (That said, you could do that by having him as the primary and you as the AU on one card, and vice versa on a second card).
Post by shoeaholic on Jul 10, 2014 13:16:58 GMT -5
We have both. Joint on some but mostly our own each. We both have our own Amex platinum for the benefits as opposed to one with joint access. It doubles our benefits and we make back the annual fee in benefits (i.e., lounge access, cruise credits, airline credits). I pay all the bills so any cards other than our Amex are pretty much just household expenses.
We mostly have our own, but he's an authorized user on two of mine.
I don't know that truly joint credit cards exist any more -- if they do, they're rare (most cards have the option of a primary cardholder and an authorized user). So I think it makes sense for both of us to have and use separate cards so we're both maintaining strong credit scores. (That said, you could do that by having him as the primary and you as the AU on one card, and vice versa on a second card).
Actually most card issuers do allow joint or auth user. The key difference as you noted is that authorized users don't always get reported to the credit bureaus, so if you are trying to establish credit your better off having it as joint. By having joint if one person doesn't have prior credit they can begin to establish it as a joint account holder.
I don't know that truly joint credit cards exist any more -- if they do, they're rare (most cards have the option of a primary cardholder and an authorized user).
This is my understanding too.
Our system is to each have card(s) in our own names, and then we also have a "joint" card (actually in H's name w/ me as auth user) that we charge joint purchases to. This is just to make accounting easier and makes the most sense with the way we budget.
This is weird but my husband has never had his own credit card. He is an authorized user on both of mine. I pay all of the bills and handle all of the money so from an organizational standpoint it works for us. I have made him a co signer on our mortgage and several paid off car loans just to give him more of a credit history. He has no desire to get his own cards and I haven't pushed it.
Post by crashgizmo on Jul 10, 2014 13:34:05 GMT -5
When we first got married, DH added me as an authorized user to 3 of his cards since he is 9 years older and has more credit history. It helped my credit score immensely.
We still have separate credit cards as well, but we also churn them for points and rewards, so we rotate which ones we use. Right now we are using my Sapphire Preferred, but will soon switch to a new one of his when we get our points.
We have both. We have one joint card that we are both account holders on that we use for trips, dinners, etc... Then we both have our own that we use on ourselves. This seems to work for us very well
We each have one from before we were married, but we never use those. We've opened better rewards cards together so those are the ones we use now. I guess we could cancel our old ones, I've just always kept them open since those are our longest open accounts.
Our two main cards are joint. He does have a separate card still open that the only time he ever uses it is to buy me presents, then I have to log in after the event to make sure the bill gets paid.
Almost all of our cards are separate. I can't wait until they are paid off and we can get rid of them and just keep 1 each in our names and maybe 1 joint.
We keep most of our fun money separate and that spending sometimes happens on cards, so it is nice. I also like that he has some stuff separate from me...so I don't have to bug him to transfer "his" money to pay for a treat he bought himself. It also allows us to build up rewards and do as.we.please with them, which has been extra nice since we have seriously cut back on extra spending.
$400 in rewards for Choos? Yes please. That would NOT happen from the joint card, which is all travel, FIRE, or project focused rewards (yes, all good stuff but not shoes ya know).
Post by bostonmichelle on Jul 10, 2014 19:32:45 GMT -5
We have a few separate cards and store cards. We just got a new Amex card for frequent flyer miles and I added DH onto it. We use this for as much as we can to get points.
I have a few in just my name that I haven't used in a couple of years. It helps my credit to keep them open (increases credit to debt ratio and the length of credit history).
I'm an authorized user on all but one of FI's CCs; he didn't bother as he doesn't use this card.
He wants to start transitioning our accounts to true joint, which just means I get to be responsible for them now. That doesn't seem fun, lol. The Macy's form is sitting in our paperwork pile right now.
We added each other as authorized users to our cards when we got married. All our finances are joint.
This may be flammable but the idea of separate credit cards makes me nervous. I make more than DH, but he likes to spend more. It works for us because the things he buys are usually practical and needed, just things I would put off indefinitely. I could see it leading to a fight though if my CC bill is like $500 and his is $1500. I'd rather see it all on 1 CC bill and not have to confront who spent more on what.
Even more flammable, but I like seeing where he is using the card. He had some pretty steep cc debt when we met, which he paid off in full before we got married, but knowing his history I like being able to keep his spending accountable. He acknowledges that being accountable helps him, so it works for us.