Today’s tweet is part of J_C_Key’s fiction project (we hope it’s fiction, at least), but the issues are real and all too common.

Dear Journal, Wife left a note today: ‘I cheated.’ Since then I’ve sold all her stuff, ran up her credit cards. Showed her! -April 1, 2009

Putting aside the ethical issues, as well as the sold property, we couldn’t help but wonder- is this type of revenge a good way to get back at a cheating spouse? More importantly, how can marriage and credit card use affect your own credit score and credit rating?

You can read our guide to the basics of marriage and your credit- but for now, let’s run through the possibilities with our cuckolded husband.

One possibility is that the husband and wife don’t share a joint account or any financial responsibilities. In that case, the husband doesn’t take on a lot of financial risk by running up his wife’s credit card. However, what he’s doing is strictly illegal (the same way it would be to steal a strangers’ card) and could result in jail time. It’s a good rule of thumb to never use a card you aren’t authorized to use. Plus, it might make things a little awkward when wifey returns from the store to admit that when she wrote “I cheated,” she was talking about the previous night’s bridge game.

If the couple has a joint account or joint credit card, the legal risk is decreased, since the husband might be a joint account holder or an authorized user of the account. However, with that right comes financial responsibility. If his wife can’t pay off the card, the husband may find his own credit rating damaged. Marriages don’t affect credit ratings as much as people think, but a significant debt on a joint account can still pack a financial punch.

Assuming a divorce is in the works (our couple seems rather irreconcilable), credit ratings and scores are tied to the individual during marriage and after it. However, history within a joint account may be incorporated in the new credit rating each person receives. So after the divorce papers have been signed, if you’ve incurred significant financial risk during your marriage, traces of it will be visible even once you’re a bachelor again.

What’s the moral of the story? It probably doesn’t pay to buy an HDTV with your cheating wife’s credit card, no matter how good it feels. Because in the end, just like cheating, bad credit will come back to haunt you.

Tags: bridge game, cheating spouse, credit score, cuckolded husband, dear journal, divorce, ethical issues, fiction project, financial responsibilities, financial responsibility, financial risk, husband and wife, legal risk