Credit and Divorce: How Your Ex Can Kill Your Score

Even if you’re doing everything right with your own finances, you can still take the fall for someone else’s mistakes. Albert, an Army officer, remarried soon after his divorce. However, his ex-wife’s sloppy credit habits were still trashing his credit score a decade later:

“The problem is that she was not ordered to refinance the house in her name only,” Albert wrote. “Since then, she has never made the mortgage payments on time, and it reflects on my credit report. Except for that payment, my present wife and I have perfect credit.”

It’s not that his ex can’t afford the $263 monthly payment, Albert explained; both she and her second husband have good salaries. She’s just habitually late.