When couples decide to divorce, they often think about how they’re to divide up tangible assets. They, however, rarely think about what’s going to become of their personal or shared debt. This is one of those things, though, that couples must discuss when it comes to property division.
Having your divorce attorney help you broker an agreement with your ex as to who is going to continue paying on one bill or the other is important. If you don’t make such decisions and put them in writing, then your ex failing to pay a bill that’s owed or not doing so in a timely fashion could impact both your and your ex’s credit for an extended period of time.
While having which of the two of you is going to pay each bill written into the divorce decree is important, it means very little to creditors. What matters most to them is how their own credit agreement is written. If it lists both of you as co-applicants or authorized users, then they’ll likely pursue both of you in getting what they’re owed.
It’s because of this that financial experts recommend for divorcing couples to try and pay off or down those pesky joint accounts as quickly as possible.
They also recommend that these accounts be put in just one of your names the minute you do to reduce the chances of your credit being further impacted. In some cases, you may even have to pay it down and then close the account simply to get him or her off of it.
When it comes to loans, like car or mortgage ones, whichever spouse that is going to keep it may benefit from refinancing it in his or her own name. You being in control of payments will give you peace of mind and timely payments will help improve your credit score.
If you’re considering getting divorced and you want to learn more about how debts are split up during this process, then a Fort Myers attorney can advise you about how to proceed.