It’s that time of year again, close to Valentine’s Day and love is in the air. Consumers are bombarded with hearts and flowers, evoking thoughts of romance and considerations of marriage proposals.

Before the commercialized romantic assaults clouds your judgment too much, have an honest discussion with your intended about credit, specifically their current credit debt and their credit history.

If you’ve worked hard to establish a good credit rating and your intended has significant debt, or perhaps even defaulted debt, it will effect you and not in a good way. Your good credit report will remain yours, but after marriage if the two of you apply for joint credit, both of your credit history reports will be taken into consideration when negotiating terms of a loan. A less-than-stellar credit report from either party of a joint loan application will result in a higher loan interest rate.

Love is grand, but credit is forever, and a bad credit report will negatively impact all your future loan applications as a couple.

Take an ‘I’ll show you mine if you show me yours’ approach to checking out each others credit report prior to popping the question this Valentine’s Day season. Definitely not romantic and not something that Hallmark makes a card for, but something that is necessary when planning a future a together.