<prompt> Human: I am getting married to someone who has bad credit550ish and wanted to know how this may impact us once we are married? Any insights are appreciated  <response>: The answer here depends a lot on two questions: How did she end up with a bad credit score? Has she remedied any issues that caused it? If the bad score wasnt truly self-inflicted family opened accounts in her names and didnt pay, heshe co-signed on something and the other person bailed, an unexpected medical bill, then Id just make sure she has in place protections to make sure that cannot happen again. And then its about helping himher to improve hisher score. If the bad score was self-inflicted heshe ran up credit card debt, or stopped paying bills, or was evicted from a home, then you obviously need to make sure heshe has broken the habits that led to the irresponsibility in the first place, and that all of the debt is accounted for and being handled. It probably also warrants a conversation to make sure you and himher have a similar financial outlook regarding credit, and its importance. Tangibly, your score wont go down because of her bad score, but it may impact joint financial decisions and bigger purchases youll need to finance. Hisher bad credit may impact your ability to jointly rent a place or purchase a house. Youll almost certainly need to be a cosigner on a car loan, student loan, or other personal loans or financing. Thats important because if you divorce it happens, youd be on the hook for anything that you cosigned with himher after you got married. 