If you marry someone with bad credit will it affect yours?

My fiance has bad credit, he has paid 1 thing off that I know of and that was an account from a bank that closed with a negative balance. He has mentioned that he has some credit cards that he owes money on but he doesn't know how much (and I can't imagine what the finance charges are as we have been living together for a year and he has had 4 different address' in the past 5-6 years so who knows where the bills are getting sent)

He wanted to open a joint checking account but I decided I would just keep my own and he would have his own. So far the collections haven't caught up and taken money out of his pay checks or his checking account.

IF all this debt is from before we get married will it affect my credit?

I also asked him/told him to do the 1 a year free credit report and he refuses to do it his excuse being that he doesn't want to know how much he owes when he doesn't have the money to pay it (which is a lie because he does/would if he'd start paying on it now)

He sounds irresponsible to me. Do you really want to marry someone who is not financially responsible? He will be living off of you and you will be giving him a free ride. I would not add him to anything- do not co-sign anything or even apply for credit together. I would be careful, I have children to a man like this, (when I was young and stupid) and he stole my identity and opened pre-approved credit cards and made himself a authorized user. Before I knew it (in 3 months time)he had maxed out over $20,000 in credit cards in my name and never made a payment, of course.

As for your question: getting married does not merge credit reports. Only you making bad credit choices with the wrong people do. My husband and I have everything separate, in case something bad happens in our lives and we are unable to pay- then only one of us would have to have our credit ruined. I always tell him I have 2 credit reports.

If you marry him your credit is not affected. If you open a loan or anything with him yes it might. Make sure don't open a checking with him because he will spend your money. Because he has a prov en track record doing that.

Forget about the credit issue. Do you really want to marry someone so financially irresponsible. Give it great thought. Why would someone put themselves in this position. Does he seem to have an explanation for everything? Is it rarely his fault? Does he take responsibility for other areas of his life?

He doesn't know how much he owes on his credit cards! He's either lying or he's someone that is not living in reality.
Please be very careful. This can turn painful and ugly.

I see a huge red flag.
The guy is not wanting to take responsiblity for looking at his credit report?
Do not co sign for him for anything. Insist he builds his credit up.

If he is in this kind of trouble before you get married, I would insist he clean up his act. If he doesn't, you won't believe the fighting and the problems you will have because of it. He will always lean on you to make purchases and if anything happens, and he doesn't stay, you're stuck with the entire bill.
I don't like to sound negative, but it's a fact.

As long as you do not cosign, or have a checking account with him, or list him as an authorized user on any of your credit cards, you will be ok.

Do you really want to marry this guy? Yes, yours and his credit rating will be connected at the hip once you get married. The fact that he doesn't want to do anything about it before you get married speaks volumes about how much he cares about you. I promise you, if you marry this guy he will ruin you emotionally and financially. Good luck! I cannot understand why women marry guys like this and are then surprised at how bad things turn out. The warning signs are obvious here.