The limitations of a Court decree regarding your credit:

So you have hammered out who gets what now that the two of you are going to live apart, and you probably have had an attorney help you negotiate.  Definitely you’ve had the attorney draw up all the legal documents.  Finally the court issues its judicial ruling stating something like you will get the house, the EX will pay you enough to meet your financial obligations, and so on.  Assets are allocated and it is entered into the court record, and the public record.  Debts are also divided: one will pay the department store charges, the other will make the car payments, and so on.

All of this has force of law, the power of the court in all of its authority.  What does that mean to your credit future?

The creditors with whom you and your EX have signed contracts and agreements are not affected by the court allocation and decree.  The court ruling applies only to the two of you:  You and the EX are still bound by any contract you signed prior to the court ruling.    

The court is NOT directing your creditors to change the contract that you both signed.  Those contracts are not affected.  The creditor is still dealing with each of you who signed as if nothing changed because for the creditor with a signed contract, nothing has changed.

This is true for credit accounts (credit cards, store charge cards), any kind of loan or lease (cars, motorcycles, trucks, real estate – apartment, store front, warehouse, office space, etc), any secured credit such as a mortgage (any loan secured by real estate), etc. 

Any joint bank or credit union accounts are not affected.  Either of you has access to the accounts, until someone – YOU - notifies the financial institution of the change.

It is not enough to tell the bank or credit union, what the court ruled….Because they know that the court decree is directed to you and the EX, not toward the financial institution.

That is why the best way to prevent credit damage due to the actions of the EX – intentional or not –  is for YOU to take control of the situation and issue the proper notification to protect yourself and your family.

To make sure that your wishes regarding the joint account are clearly and properly presented to the financial company (bank, department store, credit card company, bill collectors, and so on) we have prepared ready-to-use form letters and notices for you to use for this purpose.