Do margin accounts affect credit?

[aqokiyeusare]

I'm guessing since credit cards and loans to affect your credit and so do margin accounts

[acaefwqf38]

I have never seen any of my margin accounts even show up on my credit reports, but I'm sure if you ever defaulted on a margin agreement, it would showup then.

[adasowice]

I do not believe they do. 99.99% of folks would only have good history since the brokers don't let anything near a default occur.

[admin]

I don't think one can default (or easily) on the margin account. To begin with, it is your money. It is not like paying a 10% deposit and getting a 90% loan to buy a house. It's a 50-50 set up for you to borrow money to buy stocks. Stocks rarely go to zero overnight. When your stocks purchased on margin decline in prices, your broker will issue you margin calls or liquidate your positions long before the stock prices go to zero. When you have margin debt they would not let you withdraw cash that leads to below margin maintenance level.