How Does Divorce Affect Your Credit Score

How Does Divorce Affect Your Credit Score

Divorce is something that you would never want to experience in your life. As much as possible, you want your marriage to work, especially if you have kids. But no matter how hard you try, there will instances when divorce would be the only solution available for you. Yes, it is tedious but there will always be couples who would rather have divorce rather than stress themselves in working things out. And once you decide to have divorce, it affects almost all aspects of life. Divorce is a point in your life when you need to consider a lot of things such as legal fees, child support and even your personal expenses. Divorce proceedings do not directly affect your credit score but may have both positive and negative impacts to your financial health in the long run. That’s why you should be prepared for the financial consequences you may encounter after initiating a divorce.

Again, divorce itself does not make your credit score fall but it is the corresponding effects and events brought by it. You can try out various sites to monitor your score along the way. You may wonder is Credit Karma a safe site? The answer is yes.

To give you a clearer picture on how this goes, the following situations listed below could gradually create adverse effects to your credit score:

  1. You Will Have a Hard Time Paying Your Own Debts – When you are a party to a divorce, expect numerous expenses including filing fees and attorney’s fees. With such kind of expense plus your other financial responsibilities, your credit score will surely drop. In addition, the initiation of divorce by your ex-spouse will also cause a drastic change to your financial situation especially in cases where he/she is the primary breadwinner during your marriage. When you are into this kind of circumstances, you have to restructure your financial life by lessening your credit account expenses and by trying new financial alternatives.
  1. Your Ex-Spouse Refuses or Stops to Pay Joint Accounts – Divorce may be burdensome in your financial status especially when you deal with your joint accounts. If your ex-spouse does not show any concern in paying your joint monetary obligations, you will most likely end up paying those debts on your own to protect your credit. This idea seems to be a heavy load on your shoulders because this situation may even ruin your financial credibility as you need to handle so much burden in satisfying you and your ex-spouse’s monetary duties. It’s because of this that divorce becomes a stressful situation which may disturb your credit score. But you can still avoid this situation by doing whatever it takes to arrive with decent financial terms between you and your ex-spouse to settle your joint accounts. You should be able to inform your ex-spouse that if he/she neglects this financial responsibility, his/her credit standing may also suffer. But if terms are difficult for both of you, you may have the option of paying all of the existing debts and later on report the non-performance of debt payment to courts.
  1. Your Ex-Spouse Shows Mean Behaviors Towards You – Divorce may be regarded as one of the most upsetting events for married couples. During this time, it may be difficult for you to cope up with feelings of anger, frustration and even depression. This situation can also cause your financial life to suffer because in reality, not all divorce proceedings end up couples entering into amicable settlements. For an instance, if your ex-spouse is too mad at you, he/she may leave you with excessive debts using your credit card accounts which he/she is an authorized user. If that happens, you will have difficulties in paying off your debts. As a result, your credit score will decrease. To avoid this kind of situation from happening, it is best that you update your credit account information by removing your ex-spouse as an authorized user and vice versa. This is one way of ensuring that your divorce will only have a small impact to your credit score.
  1. Creditors Will Come After You During Divorce – When you were still married, your financial life starts to change. At this point, you and your partner establish a joint account which is used for the family’s subsistence. During this period, both of you apply for mortgages and other loan amounts which you are jointly accounted for. But when you decide to have divorce, creditors will then begin to go after each of you for the payment of your debts before the partition of assets. This is indeed true once you two decide to take on any divorce actions. Hence, if you don’t want creditors to interfere with your good credit score, you need to fulfill your accounts with them. Make necessary agreements with your ex-spouse to avoid financial problems such as these.

If divorce is the only solution you and your ex-spouse has, you have to ensure that you are financially capable to sustain your personal needs. Joint accounts should be settled after finality of the divorce decree. Take action for the separation of your shared accounts. Work together to close them and explore on the availability of options set forth by your lenders for the settlement of your pecuniary obligations. Adjust your lifestyle if necessary and create reasonable financial budget that will cover your expenses. Stay on top of your payments of personal bills by monitoring your credit performance from time to time. Moreover, establish effective financial plans that will guide you towards obtaining a better financial health after your divorce.

Do not enter into heated arguments with your ex-spouse but try your best to have a good civil relationship with him/her. Divorce opens a new chapter of your life and included in it is the opportunity to set a high credit score as one of your financial goals and protect it as much as possible. Give yourself a break and rehabilitate your life including your financial capabilities. After all, that is your life so go ahead and plan your future with financial stability.

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