Home » Best Days » Women and Credit

Women and Credit

Some of the most unfortunate credit situations happen to women when a life-altering situation occurs. Divorce or the death of a husband can often leave women with little or no credit history and struggling to attain it.
Usually these are women who worked during their marriage and many even handled the chore of paying the bills. But because all the loans and credit cards were in the husband’s name, there is often no record of shared responsibility.
While having no credit is better than having bad credit, it does present problems. Many times women in this situation must find a cosigner for loans.

Here are a couple tips to make sure your name appears in the right places:


- Find out what kind of accounts you and your husband have together. If it is a joint account, make sure both social security numbers appears on the file. This insures the account will appear on both credit files. If it is an individual account not in your name, it will not appear on your credit report.

- Make sure you know your rights when it comes to credit. Two federal laws that give you specific rights are the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which prohibits creditors from discriminating on the basis of sex or marital status and the Fair Credit Report Act, which protects consumer privacy and safeguards the accuracy of credit bureau reports.

- Name changes due to marriage or divorce may not automatically transfer from an old account to a new account. Make sure your credit file is not lost in these circumstances.

Consumer Credit Counseling Service is a non-profit agency that can help clients manage debt by setting a budget and payment plan. CCCS helps thousands of its clients decrease interest rates, stop late payment charges, stop over-the-limit fees, extend credit terms and stop creditors from calling their home.
For more information, contact CCCS at (800) 821-4040 or visit www.cccssavannah.org.