Credit Scores and Divorce: Protecting Your Credit

Divorce itself does not appear on your credit report or lower your score. Joint accounts do, and a missed payment on any account with your name on it can hurt your credit even if the decree assigns that debt to your former spouse.

Protecting your credit means closing, refinancing, or separating joint accounts and watching your reports closely. Here is how divorce reaches your credit and what you can do.

Why the Decree Does Not Protect Your Credit

In Colorado property division, the court divides debts between spouses. That order binds the two of you, but it does not change your contract with a lender.

A creditor can still collect from anyone whose name is on the account unless the creditor released you or the debt was refinanced. Taking your name off a title also does not take your name off the loan.¹

Joint Accounts and Authorized Users

If you are a joint account holder, you are responsible for the whole balance, and the account’s history appears on both credit reports. If you are only an authorized user, you are generally not responsible for the debt.

Ask each creditor to close joint accounts or convert them to individual accounts. Remove a spouse as an authorized user on your cards, and ask to be removed from theirs.

Spending and New Debt During the Case

Once a case is filed and served, an automatic temporary injunction restrains both spouses from transferring, encumbering, or hiding marital property without consent or a court order.² Running up new debt against marital assets can also become an issue in the property division.

Credit damage during a divorce is usually preventable when joint accounts are addressed early. Johnson Law Group offers a no-pressure consultation to plan how your debts are divided and closed, so schedule a consultation before balances grow.

Steps to Protect Your Credit

1. Pull your credit reports. You can check your report from each nationwide bureau for free every week to see the joint and authorized-user accounts that creditors report.³
2. List every joint debt. Include mortgages, car loans, credit cards, and lines of credit.
3. Separate what you can. Close, refinance, or convert joint accounts, and pay down balances before closing where possible.
4. Build in protections. Ask that the decree set deadlines to refinance and require proof of payment on assigned debts.
5. Keep monitoring. Check your reports regularly for at least the first year after the divorce.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I build credit in my own name during the divorce?

Yes. An individual card used lightly and paid in full builds history that belongs only to you.

Talk With a Colorado Divorce Attorney

Your credit after divorce depends on how carefully the joint accounts are handled, not just on what the decree says. Johnson Law Group is here to help.

The attorneys at Johnson Law Group help clients divide debt in ways that protect their credit and will give you a clear read on your options. Schedule a free consultation through our Colorado offices, and we will serve as your North Star from here.

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