Do You Know Your Spouse's Credit Score?

           This morning I had a most unpleasant surprise.  My husband and I had our first meeting with our money coach for the Vystar Money Makeover competition. We went over our current debts, our spending this past week and a half, and our credit scores.  Shockingly, my husband has a much better score than I do!  What is amazing about this is we have been been married nearly nine years, we combine all our income and bills, and truly we should have similar scores.  What is especially crazy is that I PAY the bills and do the budget. How could that be??!
              What we discovered is we have five credit cards, but only one carries a balance.  My name is only one card (with a terrible, close to maxed out budget), and my husband's name is on the other four (with no balance, or a balance that is paid in full each month)  . My name, unfortunately for me, happens to be on a nearly maxed out Visa (which is chilling in my freezer, not being used, and on an aggressive as I can be payment plan).  To lenders, my husband looks like he has a lot of credit available to him that he is not using. What I look like to lenders, is like I have a small amount of credit available because my card is close to maxed out. What is absurd, of course, is that we are equals financially in our household and our scores should be similar.  There is no my card, his card, my account, his account in reality. But according to the credit bureaus, apparently there is.
              The fix is easy, and has already been done.  Calls were made to each lender. My husband added me as an authorized user on all the cards in his name. This should improve my credit score significantly.   In about two months, I am hoping to recheck the credit scores and be more equally yoked.
              Although the contest we are in does not award a prize for biggest credit score improvement, credit scores impact how much it costs for your home, car, insurance and certainly low credit traps you making it oh so easy to stay poor.
              So of course, my advice to you is check your credit scores with your spouse.  I am hoping you do not experience what I did this morning (embarrassing!) but on the off chance you do, here's to hoping this maneuver can help your situation, too.