Does Divorce Change Your Credit Score?
Shawn Leamon, MBA and a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst, discusses, “How Does Divorce Affect Your Credit Score,” on this page of his website.
Divorce doesn’t necessarily help or hurt your credit score. When you apply for any kind of credit, which could be a credit card, an auto loan, a mortgage or any other type of loan, lenders check your credit information and borrowing history. This determines whether you would be a high-risk or low-risk borrower. Having a perfect credit score over 800 makes it easy to obtain loans with a low interest rate. A low credit score means that you are less likely to get a loan, but you would likely face a high interest rate if you did qualify.
You need to check your credit report, as you are responsible for any account that has your name on it. Joint credit cards, for instance, can hurt your score badly if you don’t remove your name from them following the divorce.
Some important joint accounts to keep track of include a mortgage, credit cards, personal loans, and auto loans. Divorce can also help your credit score if you would no longer be responsible for certain debt. Less outstanding debt would improve terms for your next loan.
Key Learning Points:
• Divorce doesn’t necessarily help or hurt your credit score.
• Find out which accounts have your name on them.
• Stay up-to-date with changes to your accounts.
• Be vigilant about protecting your credit score after divorce.
Shawn Leamon is the author of Divorce and Your Money: The No-Nonsense Guide.
More on this subject can be found on Shawn’s podcast under the same title at www.divorceandyourmoney.com.
About Shawn Leamon
