I wonder if anyone else has had this come up. I need bankers in community property states, that have elected to pull consumer credit reports on non-applicant spouses, (in connection with credit)to help me out with this one.

Hypothetical Example:

· A joint checking account has overdraft coverage from a credit card or line of credit.

· The credit card or line of credit is in the name of only one of the joint signers on the checking account.

· The joint signers on the checking account may or may not be husband and wife.

Question 1:

Do the signers on the line of credit have to be identical to the signers on the checking account?

Question 2:

Because California is a community property state— we can pull the credit report of a non-applicant spouse when deciding whether or not to approve a credit application. But what if the joint checking account holder is not the credit applicant’s spouse?

Question 3:

If the account went delinquent and ended up in a collection— is it then permissible to pull a credit report on the joint checking account owner? What if the joint checking account owner is the one who caused the delinquency?

I have reviewed FCRA extensively and my feeling is that if the joint account owner were not the credit holder’s spouse, it would never be permissible to pull the report. Further, even though it might be permissible to pull a credit report on a non-applicant spouse when approving credit— I’m not so sure about pulling one on a non-credit-applicant spouse (or anyone else for that matter) in a collection situation—even if the person had access to the line of credit.

I also wonder about the legal implications of tying a line of credit in one persons name to a checking account with two signers. I don’t specialize in contract law; but it doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.

I appreciate any help.

I'll give you the short answer to the above, we have a policy that for Overdraft Checking, ALL account holders must sign the application/agreement.

We will decline an application as "incomplete" if not all of the account holders have signed.

We have not run into the situation very often where a married person holds a joint checking account with someone other than their spouse. However, theoretically, we can pull the credit report of any non-applicant spouse to the person(s) wishing to apply for Overdraft credit.