Sunday, December 14, 2008

Take steps to protect your credit during divorce

By Mike Mastracci

Credit scores are important, more than ever. When you separate or divorce, special care needs to be taken to protect your scores. Duriing these times of chane , it might be wise to shop around.

To do something pro-active, financial experts stress education. Yu need to learn the ins and outs of credit lending and reporting. The family home is generally the largest asset that most people achieve in their life times. More often than not, men still feel like they get the short end of the financial stick in a divorce. It does not take long to screw up a good credit rating. It may take a very long time to rebuild a damaged credit score.

There are a few basic steps you can take to help lessen the financial pain.

. Consider tearing up all your cards.

. Separate joint debt into manageable chunks.

If you're merely a credit card user on your spouse's card, remove your name.

The family home is all to often used as a huge ATM machine and couples often max it out during the marriage, leaving little equity to work with during separation and divorce. Necessity is the mother of invention, so be creative in your spending.

For some reason, it often sees like car loan agents have the least sympathy when it comes to working out delinquent payments. Car companies know that you need wheels and they therefore can lean on you when necessary. Stay on top of your car loan payments.

Once the damage is done to your credit rating, it takes a long time and a lot of work to restore it. You may be well advised to use the services of a credit restoration service if needed. The credit repair gurus are salavating these days.

When divorce cripples the family budget, not only does the stress level rise, but so too, does the likelihood of filing for bankruptcy. Despite new laws enacted in 2005 that tightened the requirements for bankruptcy, many people still see it as an easy way out of crushing financial debt. Unfortunately, some spouses also believe bankruptcy will allow them to escape their spousal or child support obligations during or after the divorce; wrong.

Despite the changes in bankruptcy laws in the last few years, it is still pretty easy to walk away from many individual and marital obligations. - 16928

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