Can Mediation Help With Your Credit Scores?

When couples come to Equitable Mediation Services to work through the issues surrounding their divorce, they are beginning the process of separating their co-mingled lives into separate entities and part of that is untangling the often complex financial matters that are a part of a marriage.  Over the course of the years you’ve probably opened bank accounts, gotten mortgages, lines of credits, auto loans and the like in both of your names with the full expectation that you would be jointly responsible for their repayment.  So what happens now that you are in divorce mediation and you no longer will be “joint” but are on your way to being “single?”  In this interesting article the author talks about how unchecked credit issues may outlast your marriage and steps you should take to resolve them prior to your divorce.  We’ve all heard the horror stories of identity theft and our credit reports being damaged but would you ever think that your soon to be ex-spouse would be the reason?

When you think about it, your spouse is probably the one person who knows everything one needs to know about a person to open an account in your name.  Social Security number, birth date, mother’s maiden name, etc.  and sometimes, the anger of divorce often gets the better of someone and they fraudulently do so in the name of revenge.  However, even more common is when accounts you held jointly and thought were closed, are still open and your ex-spouse continues to use them after your divorce.  The bad news is you are still jointly responsible for those accounts even if you had nothing to do with it.

One of the benefits of mediation is that we take the time to go through such issues and have each of you obtain a copy of your credit report for review.  I have never had a time where there wasn’t at least one “surprise” on someone’s credit report of either an account they couldn’t account for or something they thought was closed and now suddenly they find it open and active.   Once we receive copies of each of your credit reports, we do a swap and give each of you a copy of the other person’s credit report for your own review.   If there aren’t any issues, neither of you have anything to worry about but if something does pop up, this is the time to resolve it before you are divorced and won’t have access to these records anymore.  Our philosophy is it’s better to resolve as much as you can now than to have it pop up later and have to go to court and hire an attorney which will cost you substantial sums of money.  After all, another one of the benefits of mediation is that it can save you up to $20,000 on your divorce so why waste away those savings on a trivial matter that could be resolved now?

If you have any questions about divorce mediation or how mediation can benefit you, please feel free to contact us to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation in one of our six central New Jersey office locations where we will take some time to get to know more about you and your situation and see if mediation is right for you.  Of if you’re simply not ready yet, feel free to visit the Equitable Mediation Services website where you’ll find lots of great information about parenting plans, equitable distribution, NJ child support and spousal support / alimony and contact us when you’re ready.  We look forward to helping you get through your divorce peacefully, efficiently and with as little stress on you and your family as possible.