Credit Repair After Divorce

A divorce can take an emotional and financial toll on you, and in some cases, it can damage your credit as well, preventing you from doing some of the things you need to start fresh, like rent a place of your own, get a mortgage or even land a new job. While repairing your credit after a divorce can seem daunting, with some patience and dedication, you can rebuild your credit.

Problem

When you got married, you didn't take on your husband's credit, so any debts that he got on his own prior to marrying you and later defaulted on should not appear on your credit report. However, if after marriage, the two of you got credit cards, loans and other such accounts jointly and then your spouse defaulted, those items will blemish your credit report and drag down your score, according to Experian's website.

Stop Loss

If your divorce was a bitter one, your now ex-spouse may be looking for ways to hurt you. You should cancel any joint credit cards you have and pay off any loans in both your names or transfer ownership of the accounts to him alone to prevent further damage to your credit for late payments or nonpayment. Note that a creditor typically won't close a joint account without permission from both spouses, according to the Spend on Life website.

Repair

To start on credit repair after divorce, get your credit reports from all three credit bureaus---TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. You can request one free credit report annually from all three agencies at AnnualCreditReport.com. Look them over carefully and compare the information on all three. This will tell you exactly where the problems lie. If any accounts that belonged only to your husband show up on your report, ask to have them taken off your report. All three credit bureaus have online dispute forms, as of 2010.

Rebuilding

You may find that immediate repair measures result in some improvement to your credit, but perhaps not much. Many factors could continue to drag down your score, such as a high debt-to-credit ratio or old debts that you defaulted on at some point before getting married but still appear on your report. You can resolve some of these issues, by disputing old debts in collections, because if a debtor can't provide verifying information about the debt, he must delete the information. Then offer to pay off those debts that remain in exchange for deletion of the account entirely from your report. This is called a pay-for-delete. Also, you should pay down credit cards with balances near the maximum.

Starting Fresh

If you never carried much debt or credit prior to getting married, you may find yourself now with insufficient credit history to generate a good credit score. If this is the case, get new accounts in your name alone, such as credit cards and car loans, and then pay them off judiciously and on time to help you get the credit score you want, suggests the New Horizons website.