Nothing – and everything, if love will lead to marriage.

It’s easy to be caught up in the excitement of romance and love, and forget that when you become a couple, your sweetheart’s credit score will affect your life as well as his/hers.

So as unromantic as it seems, couples who are contemplating marriage should share their credit reports along with their undying devotion.

This is a smart move because you do need to know how your future partner handles money. After all, money and what people do with it is the root cause of most divorce in the U.S.  You may need to have a long talk about money before the wedding.

But there’s a more practical reason as well. You may want to use credit as a couple, and if either of your credit reports show scores that are too low, you need to make some decisions before the big day.

Often there are adjustments you can make or errors you can correct that will raise your scores. But if not, it might be wise for one of you to go ahead with a car or a home purchase in your name alone before the wedding. Landlords also check credit, so if you plan to move to a new rental, consider doing it now.

The first step is easy – getting your credit report online. And while you’re probably hearing about the free credit reports you can get annually from AnnualCreditReport..com you do need something more than they offer – your credit scores. You can get your credit score online from that site, but only for a fee.

Choose one of the many offerings at CreditScoreQuick.com where you will get both your online credit report and your free credit score. If you don’t want to continue with credit monitoring, all you have to do is cancel and you won’t be charged.

The next step is to read the report in search of errors. 7 out of 10 credit reports do have errors, so the chances are good that you’ll find at least one. Contact the credit bureau that reported the error, and get to work on correcting it.

Next, read the “reasons why” your score is not higher and see what steps you can take to raise it. It could mean paying off an old collection or transferring debt from one credit card to another. It could even mean making application for a new credit card, if the reason for low scores is lack of credit.

Plan ahead – don’t let money issues mar your honeymoon.