What are the benefits of having joint debts with your spouse?

Many people share everything when they get married: the bed, the bathroom, the bank account. It is also common for married couples to acquire debt together – they buy a home as joint signers or they buy a car in both names equally.

There are some concerns to sharing debt with your spouse, but there are also many andvantages. You’d need to consider both before signing on the dotted line, ‘til death do you part – because that debt can last even longer. Be sure to make a wise decision.

So what are the benefits of having joint debts with your spouse? Here are a few:

1. You both build a credit rating. If you put all debt into one person’s name – typically the husband’s – then the other spouse has no opportunity to build a credit rating. Even if the spouse has no income of their own, they can build a good credit rating by being a joint owner of loans such as home mortgages and automobile loans. If a family makes the choice to have one spouse stay home to nurture children, then having both spouses on loan documents is a good idea.

1. Easier accounting. The last thing you want to invite into a marriage is dissention, and money can cause plenty of conflict. If you have debts in one person’s name (in other words, if only the husband is on the car loan, or the credit card is in the wife’s name only) then is that spouse entirely responsible for repaying the loan? If each spouse brings in income, how is that income allocated when it comes to debts? When everything is joint, then it is easier to decide which payment comes first, and you always know how much money you have with which to work.

1. Higher debt limits. If both spouses are on a credit account, then both incomes are used to calculate the allowable loan amount. This can mean you qualify for a higher credit line on a credit card or a larger home loan.

1. No surprises. If each spouse is a joint owner of every credit account, then both spouses are aware of the total debt amount and know exactly what the obligations are. There is case after case of a spouse racking up thousands in credit card debt on an individual account without the other spouse knowing about it until too late. Joint accounts avoid that problem.