Just found out all my hard work is down the tubes!

[sweetlady2k]

I posted about my budget last week but I will give a quick background. I was married in 1997 at 21 after we had a child unexpectedly. When I met him he was in college and seemed financially stable. Had 2 part time jobs a newer car. His father was paying for college ect. Anyway we both got into quite a mess with debt within a few years. He had tons of credit card offers and we had a baby who needed clothes and diapers ect. Basically we were just uneducated totally in money issues. He was in the service and deployed to iraq for 4 months and i read a book by a lady who basically used the snowball payoff idea. She called it the rapid debt repayment plan. I forget her name but since he was the major spender while he was gone I cut the budget and paid off several cc. We had another child and were doing well when his father died. His mother and father were raising his sisters 5 kids and his mom was always a sahm. Shes from overseas and cant drive or read english and was in her 50's so couldnt draw ss yet. The kids couldnt get survivors benifits even though they had raised them since birth because they werent adopted. So we lived across the state and paid for our bills and thiers. We got further and further behind. One of our cars got repo'd and finally i said we have to move over there in with them we cant pay gor 2 households. So we did and supported 11 people for a few years. Anyway, about 3 1/2 years ago we separated for reasons unrelated. We are still not totally divorced. We split the bills we had together. I took my car he took his. Mine had 3 years left his had a little more. He took the auto insurance and i took the cell. We had no cc left but a few old collections that should fall off soon. But when we separated our credit was around 510-520 because of the repo. I went on to pay my stuff on time. I paid my car off early. The interest rate on both cars was over 20% because our credit was so bad so i just paid mine fast. Somone rearended me a year after i piad the car off. So in april 2012 i went and got another car. I payed half down and financed the rest for 13% interest. My credit then was 640. The finance manager said they coul see what was mine i had paid on time but he was late alot on his. So last night i was applying for a cc with reward points. I figured my new car has been paid on time too so my credit should be improving. I decided to shell out 20 bucks and get the 3 credit reports and fico score. It was at 540 it went down 100 points since i got my car. So i looked at the report and his car which shoul be paid off showed a 415$ charge off! I called him and told him i have been trying to fix my credit and what the situation was. He knows that my bf and i are moving in less than 2 years and i wanted to buy a house. My score should have been close to 700 and now its ruined again. He said he paid the last car payment and owed some late fees. I said they charged it off you need to pay that and tell them to take that charge off off the report. I have no idea if they will. He already has another car hes paying on in his name. I just feel like my plans for owning a home are never going to happen now. Im already 37 and didnt want to be paying rent or a mortgage payment after i retire.

[sweetlady2k]

Sorry for the typos i am on my un smart smartphone

[bjl584]

First priority should be to finalize the divorce. Completely seperate all of your finances before applying for any more credit or loans. Get all of his loans and debts off of your credit report.

[sweetlady2k]

First priority should be to finalize the divorce. Completely seperate all of your finances before applying for any more credit or loans. Get all of his loans and debts off of your credit report.

How do I get them off. I already disputed it saying item was not mine but the loan is in both of our names. When I filled out the financial paperwork for the divorce we really didn't list anything since both car loans were supposively paid off and the other items were so old. The newest negative item other than that was from 2007 so will be 7 years in 2014. The divorce is taking so long because I originally got the paperwork myself and filled it all out and gave it to him to fill out 1 finanial sheet and we had to sign it with a Notary but he never did it and over a year went by so I finally went to a lawyer. I had to pay for it myself so was waiting for a time when I had enough money. Everything should be finalized by March..

[disneysteve]

First priority should be to finalize the divorce.

Sorry to say but this is the one big mistake that caused all of your problems. As long as you remain married, your financial lives remained linked. It doesn't matter what you do if you still have joint accounts with him. Separate everything ASAP. You don't need to be divorced to cancel all joint accounts. You can do that right away. Get his name off of everything it is currently on. And still get that divorced finalized as quickly as you possibly can.

[Petunia 100]

How do I get them off. I already disputed it saying item was not mine but the loan is in both of our names. When I filled out the financial paperwork for the divorce we really didn't list anything since both car loans were supposively paid off and the other items were so old. The newest negative item other than that was from 2007 so will be 7 years in 2014. The divorce is taking so long because I originally got the paperwork myself and filled it all out and gave it to him to fill out 1 finanial sheet and we had to sign it with a Notary but he never did it and over a year went by so I finally went to a lawyer. I had to pay for it myself so was waiting for a time when I had enough money. Everything should be finalized by March..

If the information is accurate, you can't "get it off". If the $415 charge off is incorrect, then you can dispute it. (It's a joint account, either of you can dispute it.) If the creditor can not provide proof, then it will be removed.

But what you need to do immediately is close all joint accounts. As long as they are open, his actions affect your score. You cannot change what has already happened, but you can prevent new "bad" credit events.

[sweetlady2k]

Yes I do realize that if the divorce had happened sooner this would be a non issue. I honestly did not have the 3k to do it sooner though. I have only that jointly on my credit report. The negative item in 2007 was the repo in both of our names but I am not calling that collection company as this debt (14K) will fall off in jan. 2014. I paid a significant number of credit cards off and old collections when we were together but they took the car before it even reached 60 days late, even though I called and explained that we had a death in the family and were trying to pay. I paid 1 full payment a week before they took the car and it didn't matter to them. At this point it would not help to throw 14k at that old of a debt.. especially since my score had gone up with it still on there. The charge off for his late fees is only a few months old so really dropped my score significantly. Other than those 2 accounts there is nothing else. My credit report was actually pretty empty. One thing it did say was bringing down my score was not enough different kinds of credit .. all I have left are 1 car installment loan and student loans both are paid as agreed.

[bjl584]

Any and all joint accounts need to be closed. If he refuses, then you will need an attorney to do it for you.