Joint Credit Card with a Spouse? Should You Do It?

Should you get a joint credit card with a spouse?

Transcript

00:00So, you and your partner have taken the plunge, and now that you're married, you're wondering,

00:07should we share a joint credit card?

00:09Well, it depends.

00:11Brian Coderna, the author of Millennial Millionaire, tells CNBC that it might be a good idea if

00:15one of you has great credit and the other's credit history is minimal.

00:19It could help your partner build credit and boost their score.

00:22Of course, there are risks, like if your partner has had issues with credit card debt in the

00:26past or if you end up splitting up.

00:29The other option would be simply adding them as an authorized user on your card, but sometimes

00:33there's a fee for that.

00:35If you do decide to share a card, Broke Millennial founder Aaron Lowry points to the importance

00:39of knowing your balance.

00:41You don't want to go over-utilize your card because you didn't realize your spouse charged

00:44the new fridge on the joint card.

00:46NerdWallet suggests setting up alerts to make sure that doesn't happen, and of course, talking

00:51to your spouse, too.

00:52Alerts are good for payments, too, since you may think the other one's going to pay it.

00:56If you decide to go with a joint card, you may want to make it somebody's job to do that

01:00so that doesn't happen.