While most marriages start off with good intentions and promises of sticking together through thick and thin, it is often those "thin" periods that run the marriage into ruin. No one wants to consider that relationships do end, and many times the split occurs over financial arguments.
Each year thousands people get married and still over half the population is divorced. Where the bad credit of one or both partners wasn't an issue before the wedding, the stress of trying to keep bills paid can take its toll.
Let's tackle marriage first. You are not held responsible for a spouse's bad credit unless you decide to take out a loan together, or unite and take on the debt together. Although you should be aware that it would be harder to get credit as a couple if your spouse has bad credit.
For instance, even if your credit is impeccable, you should prepare yourself for joint credit cards being turned down, or a small business loan that you apply for together, being nixed. Marriage has a lot of things that should be discussed before the day that you actually walk down the isle. There is the kid talk, the living situation talk, the invitation and cake talk, and there should be a money/credit talk in there somewhere.
Being proactive about a situation never hurt any relationship, but instead has made the communication lines stronger. You should order copies of both of your credit reports, then sit down and have an honest conversation that outlines the when and how your partner got themselves into a jam.
After having a heart to heart, try to enlist the help of a professional, and consolidate your debt. You may cut down on future strains and arguments if you have an expert that can tell you the truth without trying to sugarcoat things. If you or your spouse starts to be unable to see eye to eye on a situation, you will have your debt manager's number on hand to defer the argument to.
Then there is the divorce issue. If you have ever been divorced, you know that amicable is really a term that was created by divorce lawyers trying to make things reach a state that is impossible, therefore, increasing their bottom line.
If you do have an amicable divorce (crazier things have happened), be prepared to hate the other with passion at least part of the time. The logic behind these tips is that if you liked each other enough to get along in such a Mary Sunshine way, you wouldn't be divorced. The best thing that you can do following a divorce is to protect yourself.
You should notify credit-reporting agencies whenever you marry, legally separate, or become completely free. The agencies will record all of the pertinent information for the two people that are involved separately and it will help you to make separate transactions. You should also make sure that anyone involved in billing you in any way has your current address.
As childish as it may seem, divorced parties have a bad habit of throwing away an estranged partner's mail. All of your joint accounts should be closed following a divorce, and in an ideal situation, all balances would be paid off.
If there is an extensive amount of debt that has been incurred during your marriage, you should talk to your lawyer about writing in a plan to rectify the situation in your divorce proceedings. When it comes to divorce, nothing is valid unless it is in black-and-white.
Credit problems won't magically go away if you ignore them. The problems will keep growing and get worse. Add to this a new marriage and the stress of trying to work out a dozen or so other things it can all quickly spiral out of control.
Marriage may or may not last, and in the event that it goes sour, you have to be sure to take care of yourself.
