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Comment by MaupitiBlue | Hacker News Reader

Why do they think filing a joint return is relevant?

Likely just pointing out that, in even more ways than should matter in this case, they and their partners are financially identical.

And if lenders based their credit decisions on the spouse’s creditworthiness, someone else would whine about that.

The sense of entitlement that’s taken hold of the world is dismaying. If you don’t like the terms Apple / GS are offering, then go somewhere else.

> If you don’t like the terms Apple / GS are offering, then go somewhere else.

If they are basing those terms based on one of the protected classes (race, gender, age) that is illegal and should be investigated.

> The sense of entitlement that’s taken hold of the world is dismaying.

I know, right. Damn these brown people, LGBTQ, women for demanding a seat at the table. Cis-het white people must be feeling particularly oppressed with all of these racist|sexist|genderist calls for reform

“Damn these brown people, LGBTQ, women for demanding a seat at the table.”

Maybe if they earned it instead of demanding it they’d be taken seriously?

How exactly do you earn equality?

Filing a joint return in the US in no way implies financial unity. It just means your income is pooled for tax calculation purposes, that’s it (and only federal, you can often file separately in the same or different states). There are community property states, which NY is not. It gets hairy just about anywhere if a marriage is ended.

It's not filing a joint return. It's holding all the assets in joint accounts. So they have equal ability to withdraw.

Woz and DHH both seemed to think filing jointly should be determinative or at least relevant.

Maybe but that just shows that they don't understand credit scoring/credit card lending decisions. Whether or not you file joint taxes doesn't come into play at all.

Which is irrelevant since your credit report doesn’t list your assets nor does any credit card that I am aware of ask you to list assets let alone verify them.

I think Woz probably relies on investments rather than wages for income, so holding a joint account means something a little different than it would for most people.

But I understand your point.

It's also a corner case the credit rating systems don't handle. I am reminded of many years ago when I had no credit but good income, and none of the credit card companies cared about that last point enough to trust me. These are imperfect systems.

FICO is trying to fix that with Experian Boost (https://thepointsguy.com/news/how-utility-bills-might-improv...). It will let you opt in to using utility and phone bills as part of your credit score.

But this is also far from perfect. If times are tough or you’re just irresponsible, you’re going to pay your utility bills because of the extreme inconvenience of having your utilities cut off but you may not pay your phone bills.

and also only works by giving them access to your checking account. anyone who uses credit cards to pay bills doesnt get a boost. doesnt seem worth losing the points over, id rather have 2% off my bills (unless the boost had a material impact on a mortgage rate, but then you would have to pay your bills for years with checking, hoping boost is still around.)

If you have credit cards, you’re already building credit so you won’t need it.

you dont gain additional credit for paying your bills on a cc, if anything its slightly stunning your utilization.

That’s what I just said. If you already have credit, you won’t need the Credit Boost of letting them see your checking account. It’s meant for people who don’t have credit.

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