WAYS TO PROTECT YOURSELF ONCE YOU HAVE FILED FOR DIVORCE
- Sell it or pay it off – If you have a vehicle that both parties are jointly on the loan for, you will need to sell it or pay off.
- Make the payments yourself – The only way you can be absolutely positive the bill is going to be paid is if you pay it yourself
- Refinance it into one name – If one of you want to have 100% ownership in the home, vehicle or of the credit card you will need to refinance it and remove the ex spouses name.
- If the debt is too much – for you to be able to handle all on your own, you may be in a position that you have to file bankruptcy in order to be free from the debt.
What happens if I am not able to get my name removed from the credit card and my ex can’t afford to pay the card in full?
The best thing to do, would be to open an online account that both of you can sign into to make sure the payment is being made by the person who has been given the responsibility. If they are not making that payment on time then you need to make sure the payment is made, otherwise you both will be receiving derogatory marks on your credit reports.
Divorce can be a very challenging time in your life. Our knowledge here at Credit Restoration of WA – CROW, may be very valuable to you during this time. We
would like to offer our services to you in order to have a second set of eyes looking at your financial responsibilities so that you are able to make the best decisions that are available to you during this time in your life.
WAYS TO PROTECT YOURSELF ONCE YOU HAVE FILED FOR DIVORCE
- Prior to divorce – you should close or change all joint accounts into individual accounts.
- Home mortgages – must be refinanced in order to remove one party. Which means the person keeping the house must have good credit, enough income to qualify for a mortgage on their own and usually at least 2 years on the job. There may be other things that the lender requires to qualify for the mortgage as well.
- You Should – take steps to protect yourself against identity theft as well. Your soon to be ex spouse usually is armed with all your personal information and has the ability to do major damage to your credit. How do you guard against this?
- Open and maintain credit monitoring – this way you will be aware of anything new happening on your credit report
- Change your online passwords – especially to your bank accounts.
- Request the bank change your account numbers.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
- Is my credit report used during my divorce at all? The courts may used your credit report to prove access to credit or in some cases in alimony consideration.
- Lenders do not recognize Divorce Decrees
- Just because the judge gives the responsibility to pay an account to one party, does not mean that the other party is no longer financially liable in the creditors eyes. This is one of the very few times when the judge does not have
- jurisdiction. You have to remember if the account is a joint account you each signed a contract that your would be financially esponsible for the debt. What that means is if one party does not pay the account as agreed then the other party will have to or you could both end up with late payments, or even worse a charge off or collection on your credit report.
- It is very important that you understand the divorce decree division does nothing to end shared accounts. Any derogatory information due to non-payment may still appear on both parties credit reports.
- By law creditors can’t close joint accounts because of a divorce.
- Does simply filling for divorce mean my credit is Going to be messed up?
- Filling for divorce alone will not affect your credit score.
- From the credit reports perspective, the divorce never happened. The divorce is not part of the credit report and any accounts that were on your credit report before the divorce (unless paid in full) will still be owing after the divorce.
- The impact depends on the accounts and how they are handled. I can’t tell you how many people I have talked to that refuse to pay for a debt because their ex was supposed to make the payment on it. I a payment is 30 days late, this can show on your credit report for 7 years. Again just because the divorce decree says one party is responsible does not mean it is not going to negatively affect you if the payment is not made. The judge or court do not have ruling over these matters.
- Should I close my joint credit card accounts?
- Does simply filling for divorce mean my credit is Going to be messed up?
- Usually we don’t advocate for you to close revolving credit card accounts, however, in the case of a divorce we recommend you either close the accounts or make sure all your credit card accounts are solely in an individuals name.
- Keeping your cards and having it only in your name will only happen if you close the existing account and reopen it as an individual. Rarely will a credit card company remove a joint user, they are much happier to have cushion of two people paying a bill rather than just one. However, if you qualify for the account all on your own merits then they may possible do this for you.
- Creditors like the ability to pursue both parties in case of a default that is why they are not very keen on removing one party from the account. for you.
