Financial / Tax info

Are the credit cards in your name only or in both of your names? Generally, when a third party wants to sue for outstanding debt, if both parties are on a credit card or on a loan, either or both can be sued.

In a community property state, both spouses may be held responsible by creditors for the debt of one spouse, even if only one spouse’s name is listed on the credit card or loan.

In an equitable distribution state, if only one spouse is listed on a credit card or loan, generally, creditors may be able to pursue that person for the debt, but not his/her spouse. You may want to talk to a lawyer or financial counselor to see whether in your specific situation, if the credit card company were to sue for the debt, if they could only sue you or sue both of you.

However, if there is no lawsuit filed to collect debts that one spouse has, the law generally only gets involved in saying which spouse has to pay the debt when one party files for divorce. In that case, married people may be held jointly responsible by the judge for any debt that happens during a marriage. Even though the debt may only be in one spouse’s name, the other spouse may still be responsible for the debt.

When deciding how much each spouse has to pay towards the marital debt, the judge may look at a variety of factors, including: if the debt was incurred during the marriage or if it is debt that one spouse came into the marriage with, and the type of debt - for example educational debt may not qualify to be divided by a judge between the spouses, but other kinds of debt may still be joint debts. Each state may have different rules regarding debt obtained during the course of the marriage and which spouse will have to pay that debt after the divorce.

Also, I know you didn’t ask about divorce, but below is some additional information about the ways debts may be divided during a divorce. And since I am not certain if you were looking for ways to protect yourself financially while still staying married to your spouse, or if you were thinking of separating from your spouse (or even divorcing), I will try to address both scenarios.

In many states, before a divorce or legal separation, any ongoing debts that are incurred by either spouse during a marriage would be considered marital debts. During a divorce, a judge could “equitably” divide the debts between the spouses in a way that the judge considers to be fair. Or sometimes, the parties will negotiate the issue through their lawyers and come up with a division of debts even before it gets to a judge. However, even a court order in which the judge declares which party is responsible for paying the debt would not necessarily affect a third-party collector’s right to go after either spouse. In other words, the court order affects the parties in the divorce but doesn’t affect a non-party who may want to collect the debt.

In some situations, especially if parties want to stay married and there is a lot of debt, the parties might consider signing a legal contract while still married in which they divide the debt, and one spouse makes contractual obligations to the other spouse to pay off the debt and be responsible for it. However, if the contract is violated, enforcing it while still married may be difficult to do, and I am not sure whether or not a court would intervene. However, perhaps a divorce judge may consider any agreement between the parties when equitably dividing property or debts if the parties ultimately divorce. I cannot say what may or may not be possible under your state’s laws or in your specific situation. You may want to talk to a lawyer for advice. Here is a link for lawyers: LINK

Also, sometimes talking with a financial adviser may be useful to figure out how to secure one’s money from a spouse. Perhaps s/he could give ideas on a way to invest or save the money in an account that one’s spouse cannot access, or may come up with other ways to secure one’s credit.

Additionally, we have a page that focuses on financial abuse and deals with issues such as when a partner is encouraging or creating debt for the other person. I am not sure if this is relevant to your situation, but here is the information just in case: https://www.womenslaw.org/about-abuse/forms-abuse/financial-abuse.