hello, need help for questions. I was divorced in 2002. my ex asked for all marital debt, and was awarded all debt (so i could start over). Thing is I can't get any credit because he's not paying the bills on time. The bills are in both our names and I want my name taken off so that I can live again. I live at home with mom and I want my own home. Do I write all the creditors and send them my divorce decree. My credit is ruined because of my ex. How do i separate our credit when no one will give me any credit. I make a good salary but cant get any credit. Are there any other divorcees that is having this problem, if so what do you do? Please help. No one wants to date someone still living at home at 40. thanking anyone with knowledge in advance.
1*Do I write all the creditors and send them my divorce decree? 2*if so what do you do? Please help. - dstrklnd | <>- ><- <> 1*That won't work because the creditors are not bound by a divorce decree. 2*You can only sue your Ex.for breach of the divorce decree.
If you were a joint owner of the account, sending your divorce decree will do no good. And it sounds like you were a joint owner. If you were only an authorized user, it should be easy to get your name removed. Just write to the creditor and ask to be removed as an authorized user. If you are joint owners, the only way that your name will be removed is if the account is canceled and he applies for another account in his own name. Still, any balances on the old account will still be part of your credit. You can try writing to each creditor and telling them that you wish to be removed from liability for the account. But I had very little success with this. I had a similar situation. I ended up accepting responsibility for all credit card debt (about $77K worth). I had terrible credit by then, but at least I was in control. I refinanced my house at an exorbitant rate because I had bad credit. At least I had a house with equity. I took the equity and paid off a lot of the bills. I was told by the mortgage broker that if I paid everything on time for a year he could get me a better loan. After a year, I was able to refinance to an FHA loan. By then, I had met my current husband and he helped with the mortgage so I could pay bills. I also did consulting work, and for a while worked another part time job as well. All of that money went straight to bills. Today, I still owe some money. But my credit is better, I've refinanced my house several times to get a better rate and get rid of the PMI, freeing up more money. Through a succession of balance transfers as well as paying all extra on the highest interest rate first, I have all unsecured debt below 4%. I'm paying it off slowly, because at that rate I can afford to carry the balance for a while and save some money for emergencies. I'm sorry I can't offer you a better solution. You could sue your ex-husband, but if he doesn't have the money to pay bills he probably wouldn't pay you. The only option I see is that, if possible, you make an agreement with him that you'll take over the debt but he will pay you $X per month. Go back to court and get it written as alimony or something that he is required to pay or the court can go after him. I suspect that he is spending his money elsewhere and not paying the bills. At least see if you can get the creditors to close the accounts so he can't charge any more. Otherwise, since it's a joint account, you'll be responsible for any amounts he continues to charge. It was tough finding this out the hard way, but if I ever have to go through it again, I'll know to get my name off of his accounts and his name off of my accounts BEFORE we get divorced.
