Blindsided Husband Finds Out Wife Hid $60,000 Debt Until After They Were Married
Her credit card debt exceeds her yearly earnings.
Cast Of Thousands | Shutterstock A newlywed husband said he was "blindsided" by his wife's credit card debt, which she had kept a secret until after they got married. She is over $60,000 in debt, and she only earns $55,000 a year.
These newlyweds have only been married for 4 months, and she somehow managed to remain tight-lipped about $67,000 in credit card debt across 8 different cards. Surprisingly, he turned to an online community, not to vent about being duped, but rather to ask for advice about how to move forward.
A blindsided husband discovered his wife had hidden over $60,000 of credit card debt from him until after they were married.
The husband wrote that after four months of marriage, they decided to sit down together and create a joint budget to start mapping out their future. Definitely a sensible endeavor, but perhaps one they should have done before walking down the aisle.
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Unfortunately, when he started digging into their finances, he discovered that his wife had $67,000 in debt across eight different credit cards. “She never mentioned this during our engagement or wedding planning,” he wrote. Adding, "She makes $55,000 a year so this is more than her annual salary in debt. The minimum payments alone are almost $1,500 monthly."
Thankfully, she has been making the minimum payments, but the interest is only going up. He explained that the source of the debt mostly came from living expenses during grad school, helping out her family, and everyday spending. Basically, she's been living beyond her means for a while.
Nearly half of adults are carrying credit card debt from month to month.
While $67,000 in credit card debt across 8 different cards sounds alarming, it's not exactly surprising. A 2025 survey by Bankrate found that 48% of credit card holders carry debt from month to month. Of those, a whopping 53% have been in debt for at least a year.
And while having credit card debt is incredibly common, the amount this newlywed wife has accrued is a whole lot more than average. According to a 2024 TransUnion report, the average credit card balance is nearly $7,000 ($6,380 to be exact). Ted Rossman, Bankrate’s senior industry analyst, explained, "With annual percentage rates just over 20%, if you made minimum payments toward the average credit card balance ($6,380), it would take you more than 18 years to pay off the debt and cost you more than $9,344 in interest over that time period."
According to Bankrate's credit card payoff calculator, if the wife continued making $1,500 payments on her $67,000 debt and we assumed that debt had a 20% interest rate, it would take 83 months to pay off (which is just under 7 years), and the total interest paid would be $56,811. Of course, this would be if the debt were consolidated to just one card.
The husband wrapped up his post by asking for any advice on payment plans to help his wife get out of this mess, but most commenters seemed more worried about the fact that she had lied rather than the debt itself.
Nearly half of adults have admitted to lying to their partners about money.
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Financial infidelity is no laughing matter. According to Karen Stollznow, Ph.D., it "refers to the act of keeping secrets about money from not only a spouse but any significant other." She went on to say that, "Relationships are built on trust, and lying about money is a significant breach of trust, so for many, this type of dishonesty draws parallels to cheating."
In a survey conducted by financial advisor John Stevenson, "Nearly half of Americans admit to lying about money to their partners." He went on to say that, "Younger generations don’t rely on partners for their financial stability as much as older ones do. While younger couples keep their finances separate more often, they still need to combine resources to achieve long-term goals like home ownership, raising a family, or saving for retirement."
That seems to be the exact issue arising with this couple. The husband so much as said so, writing, "Right now, I felt blindsided and unable to focus on planning our lives ahead." The thing is, they need to stop looking backwards because the band-aid has been ripped off. The debt exists, and they are married.
What they really need to do at this point is get on the same page when it comes to their financial goals and the road forward. It wouldn't hurt for them to talk to a financial planner to help them set up a budget and savings plan that would allow them to get out of debt without accruing more interest and help them plan for the future. It might even serve them well to speak with a relationship counselor to help them learn how to communicate more effectively.
These money issues don't have to be the end of their relationship, but if they go unresolved, they will come back to haunt them. As one commenter sagely pointed out, "she betrayed your trust, severely. It is going to take lots of hard work for you guys to come back from that and still be together in a trusting relationship. That is the real work that needs to be done. Messing around with payment plans pales in comparison. "
Matt Machado is a writer studying journalism at the University of Central Florida. He covers relationships, psychology, celebrities, pop culture, and human interest topics.
