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Financial industry ladies?
I can't recall now but are there any of us Octoladies who are in the financial world for a job? I'm in need of a little advice.
I knew when I married DH that his credit was screwed up but now that we're starting to look for a car, I'm finding out exactly how bad is bad. My bank pretty much told me that I can't even put him on the loan application or we'll get denied. Yeah. Bad. I would have qualified on my own but still - I wasn't quite prepared for that report from them. We decided, even though we got approved on my credit/income alone, to wait and fix DH's situation.
So - aside from pulling his credit report and cleaning up any errors that may be there and asking him carry a (small) balance on his credit card for a little bit and making dang sure he pays everything on time... what else can we do to help him establish good credit? I suppose I could transfer the utility bills to him? I pay 90% of our bills every month (he writes me a check every month and I take it from there) so I know that I make payments on time and the bill would still come to the same place so I'm not worried about that falling through the cracks. Does co-owning a credit card help his score?
I'm waffling between being really mad at him (which I shouldn't be - this isn't personal but I'm mad that he let it get so bad without addressing it) and being really scared about how this will affect us together down the road since not having him on an application means that we can't consider his income on any significant purchase where we'd need a loan. I know that the right thing to do is help him get it straightened out but part of me just wants to yell at him! 
Re: Financial industry ladies?
You're doing a great thing for the both of you to go ahead and fix it now. Good for you
Putting him on your credit cards will help him a little and putting some bills in his name helps. Unfortunately it seems to take longer to fix a credit score than to ruin it.
He might consider a secured credit card. The way they work is DH deposits $250 (for example) into an interest-bearing CD, and the bank (I know Citi had them when I worked there) issues him a CC for that amount. They are designed specifically for people with no or bad credit beause they report activity every month, instead of every quarter or 6 months like many "normal" credit cards do = faster results.
Co-owning does not help his credit because he's really just an authorized signer on your account. Utilities are also not reported to credit agencies unless they have gone delinquent, so that won't help either. He just has to get rid of what he doesn't need, keep a small amount of his credit active, and use it and pay diligently every month. If he has a low-limit card with an OK rate, he should only use that one. If not, see my first suggestion about the secured card and CLOSE everything else that he's dumping money into in fees and high rates. It might take a little time, but within a year, things could look much better than they do now. Everybody makes mistakes, so I'd only be mad if he had been hiding it from you, which it doesn't really sound like he was. Work together and everything will turn around. GL!
Everything you are doing sounds right. I would be careful about closing any of his credit accounts because that can negatively affect credit as well. Keep your accounts below 50% of the limit, make on time payments, large chunk payments (if possible), pay off or remove any collection accounts. I think the best way to re-build credit is to get everything paid off, then charge and pay off your charges every month- never carry a balance (or carry a really low balance). Like everyone else has said, it takes a long time to re-build credit.
Just to clarify, you can absolutely close your own accounts with no negative effect, unless you close all of them because then you have no credit. If a card is closed by anyone other than you (say, a credit counselling service or debt collector), then that does have a negative effect. You should have no more than 3 active credit card accounts (and 2 is really preferable, one for eveyday use and another for emergencies), plus your student loans, car loans, mortgages. Any active revolving accounts you have, whether they have a balance or not, are considered when you're applying for any new loans (example: if you have a $1000 card, but only owe $50, lenders have to consider at least a 3rd of this against you because you can use more of it at any time... these days, some lenders are even more conservative and considering them in full because you can max it out = higher debt-to-income ratio). You don't want to look over-extended.
I would start by paying what was sent to collections (if any) and over paying loans, credit cards, or line of credits to eliminate the debt. There are credit products out there that will rebuild credit, capital one and chase have some good credit cards. It will take a couple of years for his history to re build as "good credit" so keep that in mind. also things that are sent to collections stay on his record for 7 years. if you guys pay things off it'll show and help even with something that was reported but shows as paid off.
joint cards (only 1 account owner and 1 that has access) and bills don't count, your credit report only counts borrowed money; the length and payment history of that borrowed money or owed money, like bills that were never paid when services were provided.
if this were my husband I would be really mad (you have every right to be). let him know that you are very disappointed in him, he needs to know this is not good for your future together. hearing these things will help him make the change and be more careful.
HTH!