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Managing Your Credit Report After Divorce

Divorce can be a challenging time, and dealing with shared financial responsibilities can add to the stress. At O1ne Mortgage, we understand the complexities involved and are here to help. Call us at 213-732-3074 for any mortgage-related needs.

Why Your Ex-Spouse’s Name Appears on Your Credit Report

If you and your ex-spouse took on debt together during your marriage, their name might still appear on your credit reports even after divorce. This can continue for up to 10 years after joint debt accounts are closed. To remove an ex’s name from your credit report, you need to close those accounts and let them expire or have them assigned individually to yourself or your ex.

How to Remove Your Ex-Spouse’s Name from Your Credit Report

Removing your former spouse’s name from your credit report typically involves closing shared accounts, which usually requires paying them off in full. After that, you may need to wait up to 10 years for the account’s payment history to disappear from your credit reports.

One effective strategy is to open new credit card accounts that allow balance transfers. Each party can transfer half of the balance from the shared account to their new card, then close the shared account. This approach can also be applied to unsecured personal loans.

If your ex-spouse is an authorized user on your account, you can remove their name by contacting the card issuer, even if there’s an outstanding balance. This prevents any activity on the card from appearing on the de-authorized user’s credit reports.

What to Do if You Can’t Separate Accounts

Sometimes, it’s not possible to split financial responsibilities cleanly. For instance, a jointly held loan on a house, car, or boat that one ex-spouse plans to keep can complicate matters. In such cases, divorce decrees typically order the party retaining the asset to pay the monthly bill, but legal responsibility remains shared.

Both parties’ names will stay on the account, and it will continue to appear on both credit reports. Missed payments or repossessions can negatively impact both credit scores. Joint debt remains a shared responsibility until one of the following occurs:

• The financed asset is sold, and the remaining balance is paid off, with proceeds split according to the divorce decree.
• The spouse retaining the asset refinances it, replacing the joint loan with a new account in their name alone.
• The joint debt is paid off in full, and the account is closed.

Even after closing jointly held accounts, they will remain on both parties’ credit reports for up to 10 years.

The Bottom Line

Removing a former spouse’s name from your credit report may not be possible if you borrowed money jointly. Joint credit accounts that outlast your marriage will continue to impact both parties until they are closed. Even then, records of those accounts and their payment histories will remain on your credit reports for up to 10 years.

To monitor how jointly held debts affect your credit, regularly check your credit report and score, or sign up for free credit monitoring to stay informed of any changes. For any mortgage-related needs, don’t hesitate to call O1ne Mortgage at 213-732-3074. We’re here to assist you through every step of the process.

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