holding credit cards

Especially if you and your spouse are undergoing litigation proceedings, your divorce can become quite an expense. On top of this, your credit may be affected in the aftermath. Continue reading to learn how you can protect your credit in your divorce and how an experienced Morris County divorce lawyer at Graves Andrews, LLC can guide you through this.

What expenses are associated with divorce proceedings?

Your divorce bill can quickly add up. What’s worse, you will likely incur expenses that you did not anticipate when you first entered these proceedings. With that being said, hidden expenses that are commonly associated with divorce include the following:

  • The cost of renting or buying a new home, and its associated moving costs, if you are the spouse who is leaving your shared home.
  • The cost of purchasing individual insurance plans, whether it be health insurance, homeowners insurance, vehicle coverage, or all of these.
  • The court fees that come with undergoing litigation proceedings.
  • The attorney fees that come with undergoing a contested divorce.
  • The child support payments that have been ordered by the court, if you are the supporting spouse.
  • The spousal support payments that have been ordered by the court, if you are the supporting spouse.

How can I protect my credit after my divorce proceedings?

Before closing your joint bank account, you should document all the marital debts that you and your spouse still share, whether it be shared credit card debt, family phone plan loans, shared mortgage loans, or otherwise. Then, you should determine if it is possible to pay off these marital debts with your joint bank account. If not, then you should determine how you will assign these debts to individual accounts.

Once this is all carefully examined and calculated, you should take proper measures toward protecting your credit after your divorce. This is because, sometimes, a spouse may attempt to ruin your finances or otherwise control your finances even after a divorce. So, such measures read as follows:

  1. Open an individual checking account that is solely in your name.
  2. Begin to deposit your earned wages into your individual checking account.
  3. Apply for a low-limit credit card.
  4. Make your credit card payments on time to slowly build your credit and increase the limit.
  5. Change the PINs on your debit cards.
  6. Change the passwords and security questions for your bank accounts.
  7. Contact any creditors and financial institutions to update your billing address.

With all this being said, you must set yourself up for financial independence for this new chapter of your life. So for assistance with doing so, do not hesitate in reaching out to a skilled Morristown family law attorney today. We await your phone call.