Divorce is a major financial event, and it’s worth protecting your credit through the process.
- Pull your own credit report and list every account, noting who’s responsible for what.
- Open a checking and savings account, and at least one credit account, in your name only.
- Ask that joint accounts be converted to individual accounts, or frozen if that’s not possible.
- Remove authorized users — including your spouse — from your individual accounts.
- Keep making payments on joint debts during the process; creditors aren’t bound by your divorce decree and can still come after you for missed joint payments.
- Get any agreement with a creditor in writing, and keep notes of who you spoke with and when.
A quick note on account types: for individual accounts, you’re responsible regardless of marital status (and in Texas, a community property state, your spouse may share responsibility for debt taken on during the marriage). For joint accounts, you’re both responsible no matter what your divorce decree says — creditors aren’t party to that agreement. As an authorized user on someone else’s account, you generally aren’t liable for the debt, though it may still show up on your credit report.