Does marriage affect your credit score?

 Which of the following conditions do you think impact your CIBIL score directly?

• You guarantee a home loan.
• You apply for a personal loan which gets rejected
• You pre-pay a home loan
• You get married

All the above events -- except for the last one, getting married -- impact the credit score directly. Getting married has no direct bearing on the credit score of either of the spouses. However it does impact the financial situation and may sometimes impact the credit score of any individual indirectly due to the action of the partner.

Why marriage has no impact on your CIBIL score?

When two people get married, their credit score is not merged or linked; so getting married will not make your credit score better or worse due to your partner’s score. Both the individuals keep their individual credit history so whatever existing or old debt you have continues to reflect in your name. Even if there is a name change in case of women (post marriage), the past treatment of debt is not erased or dropped, it is still carried forward under the new name.

So if you have defaulted in a loan repayment in the past, it will in no way whatsoever impact your spouse’s CIBIL score. Similarly if you have been a very responsible borrower and have an immaculate credit history your spouse cannot benefit from it simply by getting married.

There can be some indirect impact on the CIBIL score of both the partners if one of them behaves irresponsibly. If either of the spouses is sloppy in paying dues on time (if he or she is paying them for both), or tends to over indulge on credit card swiping which may cause the joint finances to be stretched then there could be a negative impact on the CIBIL score of both of them. While on the other hand a responsible borrower could teach a thing or two about financial discipline to his/her spouse helping him/her to have a better CIBIL rating.

Is CIBIL score of both partners considered when applying for a loan?

When a partner applies for any loan individually then only the CIBIL score of the person applying for a loan is considered to evaluate the loan eligibility. The score of the partner whether good or bad has no effect on the acceptance of the loan application.