Divorce planning requires careful consideration of a number of matters. One important area to look at is protecting one's credit. Doing so will make an inevitably difficult experience a little easier.

Most marriages involved combined finances and joint credit, and the obligation to make payments on loans and lines of credit remains whether you are the sole holder of the account of you share it with your ex-spouse. The reason is that divorce does not remove shared credit obligations. Careful planning is in order, then, to avoid finding oneself in a situation where one is paying on what one has not agreed to purchase.

Private, non-contractual agreements between spouses to pay for charges on shared accounts will not be recognized. It is important to destroy all credit ties with your ex-spouse then, if do not want to be responsible for their debt.

Cutting ties to joint credit accounts requires a number of actions, including checking one's credit report to see which credit accounts one is responsible for along with one's spouse, dissolving all joint credit accounts for which one is responsible, and establishing credit in one's own name.

Credit reports are based on individual information and will list all credit obligations for which one is responsible. After one dissolves ones joint accounts, one should then check one's credit report again and be sure that it is accurate. One should at least contact each lender and request a change of contract which would make either you or your ex-spouse responsible for the account. If they refuse, you will need to work out with your spouse who will be paying on the joint account. Both of your credit scores will be damages if neither of you pays on the account. Establishing credit in one's own name prior to dissolving one's ties to joint accounts will make it easier to get credit after the dissolution is through.

The process of severing credit ties to joint accounts should be started as soon as it appears separation is likely. Doing so will allow one to get ahead of the game and anticipate any problems.

Source: credit.com, "Getting a Divorce? Here's How to Protect Your Credit," 11 May 2011.