When you decide to get married, you must have committed to embracing all aspects of your partner regardless of whether you like it or not. However, are you open to also bearing the existing debt of your partner?

Be it credit, personal or student loan, debts can become a wedge in your relationship, especially when one partner carries a debt while the other does not. Discussion about debt is only the first step in your life journey together as a couple with mutual trust in finance.

Below are the keys to help couples facing and solving debt issues together:

1. Check existing loans

Make a list of all debts that you and your partner have. Make sure to list down everything including credit card balance, loans and all debts you have. Be honest with each other so that both of you know the reality that you are facing. Then, add into the list the amount of money that you are currently paying for the debt every month to make it easy for you to calculate your budget plan.

2. Find out your credit score

After marriage, you and your partners will have your own loans and credit score history. You should share with each other about this information and discuss strategies to improve or maintain your score. If either of you has a higher credit scoring, you can consider adding another account to your existing credit card account so you can benefit from your good credit history, thus improve your partner’s score.

3. Learn about laws relating to debt that may affect your marriage

Try to find out how marriage law would impact any aspects of your debt. You can start with an agreement on premium payment. Many of us thought that this agreement only applies to divorce but it can also be applied while you are still married.

This agreement could entail your debts, assets and what obligations are under individual or mutual responsibilities. Under this method, one party’s assets are protected from the other party’s debts.

4. Decide together how to deal with each debt

Plan the family budget that would allow you to pay off the debt and control your expenses. You can find other strategies to pay off your debts such as:

a. Credit card transfer

You can transfer the balance to another credit card that has a lower interest rate. Remember that banks will charge service fees for any transactions that have lower interest. If either of you has a high credit score, you should consider transferring cash to that person’s card because they may have a lower interest rate.

b. Financing old loan

Financing old loans is a method of taking out a new loan to pay off one or more outstanding loans. You should use this method when the interest rate of your old loan is lower than the average interest rate of your micro or small loans or any credit balances. The monthly payment of this financing should also be less than the monthly payment towards each debt.