<prompt> Human: I own a car and a house in my name, and have a bit in savings and have a credit score in the 700s. Husband and I got married a week ago, and each have our own bank account right now, but want to take all of our wedding money and start a joint account so we can stop playing the no its my turn to pay game. I dont really know how credit is affected when two people get married - is our credit automatically combined, or does it depend on how we file our taxes, or other...? Ideally, I would like to keep our credit scores separate. My tentative plan right now is to find a good bank, get a credit card in my name and link it to the joint account. However, we are going to keep our own separate bank accounts, as well. Is this crazy? Any recommendations for us? Thanks!EDIT - I really appreciate everyones helpful comments. But I would like to clear one thing up - my husband isnt an excessive spender or bad with money. He was dealt a bad hand in his first marriage, and I completely, 100 trust him with money. But thank you for your concern.Assistant: As others have stated, your credit is not combined. But if you trust him, you should try to help him build up his own credit. Heres what I would do if I were in your shoes:Get that joint account, and open up a joint credit card attached to that account as well. Agree that this card should only be used for combined expenses i.e., when you go out to eat together. Pay it off every month on time, and it will help his credit as well as yours.If youre not sure you trust him with the credit card, make sure its a low limit 1,000 should do it, and express its for emergencies only. If he shows he cant handle it responsibly, you can just close the card and pay it off with the joint account.Human: This is really helpful, thank you. I totally trust him with the credit card. His bad credit isnt due to him being an impulsive buyer or anything, he just had a crappy first marriage. I was looking at this credit card where we would get 3 back on gas, 2 back on groceries, and 1 on everything else and it would be through Bank of America, where we would prolly open up the joint checking account. So good or no good?  <response>: That card is fine. I actually have it too and use it for gas basically 3.3 cashback if you deposit it into a BOA account.Just make certain you trust him before getting it. The big issue is that joint credit cards carry certain obligations, and if in the worst case scenario you get divorced, you will not be able to close the account unless it is paid off.If you get approved for that card with a limit over 5,000, then its a Visa Signature Card, which has no preset spending limit. This means you can actually charge over the limit as long as you pay down at least to the limit before your due date. So theoretically he could charge significantly more than the limit, leave, and let you worry about the balance because his credit is already ruined. That makes this particular credit card, while good otherwise, a little riskier when used as a joint card.On rpersonalfinance we hear stories like this occasionally, where people have issues with a joint CC from an old account that their former partner is using irresponsibly. Just make sure you dont end up in that group.Edit: A little more info on cards with no preset spending limit. 