Among the things a marriage typically involves is a couple merging their finances. It is important for a couple to handle such an endeavor with great care. There are many issues that can be crucial for a newly married couple to carefully consider before deciding how to go about merging their finances.
This includes credit and debt issues. The two members of a couple can be going into a marriage with very different credit histories/scores and debt loads. When getting married, it can be important for a couple to be aware of any such differences that are present. It can also be critical for such a couple to factor in such differences when determining how best to protect both of their credit scores and to address debt in a way that is most consistent with the couple’s overall best financial interests.
While marriage typically involves a merging of finances, a big part of divorces involves the separating of finances. In a divorce, the combined marital financial household is split back into two separate households.
As credit/debt issues can be important things to consider when merging finances, so too can they be important things to pay attention to in proceedings related to the separating of finances in a divorce, such as property division. There are multiple ways a divorce can impact a person’s credit/debt situation.
For one, in addition to the division of marital assets, divorce also involves the division of marital debts. Just as couples can be bringing a lot of assets into a divorce, they can be bringing in a fair amount of debts. Both spouses can be greatly impacted by how such debt is divided.
Also, a person’s overall financial health can be impacted by what happens in proceedings like property division, and this could have ramifications for their credit health and score.
Divorcing individuals can consult skilled divorce attorneys for guidance on how to incorporate goals like protecting their credit and debt situation into their overall approach in divorce proceedings.
Source: WTOP, “Getting married? Not so fast on merging those accounts,” Jeff Clabaugh, June 6, 2017