Five reasons to apply for a joint credit card with your spouse

Many husbands often joke on how handing over a joint credit card to their wife is a recipe for disaster. But ditch this old school thought as many modern financial wizards will tell you that sharing your credit card with your spouse has it perks.

Yes it’s true! Applying for a joint credit card is beneficial as the credit activity will reflect on both your CIBIL reports and if you both have good financial habits, it will help your improve your CIBIL score.

So, here are five ways in which you can gain with a joint credit card with your better half.

Give your CIBIL score a boost
As mentioned above, the activity on a joint credit card reflects on the CIBIL report of both, you and your spouse. This can be both a good and a bad thing. If you are financial conscious and pay off your outstanding balances in full each month and also keep a hawk on the utilization rate of the total credit and keep it under 30%, your credit card can be used as great ammunition to garner a higher CIBIL score. But do bear in mind that it works the other way as well. If any of you proves to be a reckless spender and piles up credit card debt, it will end up wrecking both your CIBIL score as well as your marriage!

Be more accountable
It is obvious that reckless spending on your credit card can have grave effects on your CIBIL score. However if both you are using a joint credit card, it helps you keep a tab on your usage. If one of you has the tendency to go overboard, the other can assume responsibility of acting as a stopper. Don’t let money matters escalate into a fight, but help each other to become more financially responsible.

Faster loan processing at lower rates
A higher CIBIL score gives you greater power to negotiate with the bank and arrive at a better rate of interest. You may also get other perks such as the processing fee being waived off or better terms for servicing the loan. Most of all, your loan application may be processed really fast, as the due diligence for the bank is cut down drastically, as a high CIBIL score is a measure of your financial health and credit habits and gives the bank the immediate confidence to lend.

Better money management
If you are a financially conscientious couple and split all your expenses from groceries to entertainment, using your credit card is a great way to manage your expenses. When the credit card statement arrives, you will have a full record who has spent what and you can simply use your credit card to pay off your share.

Earn more reward points
In a bid to attract customers, credit card issuers have many attractive reward programs on offer. When both of you are using the same credit account through a joint card, you have a chance to garner reward points faster and reap the benefits of freebies. If you choose a good card you can either get a chance to earn cashbacks on almost every purchase or you can accumulate your reward points and redeem them for cheaper airline tickets or hotel stays, when you and your spouse are planning a vacation.

Thus as you can see, a joint credit card can help you in a number of ways. Judicious use of your joint credit card wisely, will help you keep your CIBIL scores high and will open up doors easily, when you are in the need to access credit.

Rajiv Raj is the Director and Co-Founder of www.creditvidya.com
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