Once the divorce is out in the open, sometimes activity on the credit cards of one or both spouses suddenly escalates.

This can happen due to one spouse’s lack of cash to live on. It can also happen due to the malice of a spouse. Or any number of other reasons…

Both spouses’ credit ratings can potentially experience dramatic impacts in a very short timeframe.

A mortgage broker offers advice on protecting your credit.

It may be prudent to order a credit report early in the game, to gather all the pertinent debt information.

What is the current outstanding balance of each debt?

Is each debt secured or unsecured?

Who is legally responsible to the creditor on each debt?

(Which may have nothing to do with who family court assigns payment of the debt to.)

Does the current value of any security exceed the amount of the outstanding balance?

Can the security be sold to pay the debt?

Of course, while protecting your credit rating is important, sometimes there are other considerations as well.

Like short-term survival until court-ordered temporary support.

Sometimes the steps you should take to protect your credit rating will also deny you much-needed short-term access to credit to cover living expenses.

Read more in this American Chronicle article: Protecting Your Credit During Divorce.