While marriage can open financial opportunities for people who are now able to pool their resources most effectively, it also involves new responsibilities and issues for personal credit. Changing your name. Otherwise, you might lose your credit history. Keep credit in your own name. Every year women who have never paid a bill late are denied credit because they have no credit history in their own names.
Joint accounts mean joint responsibility.
This is true even if a divorce decree includes provisions about one of the parties paying the bills. As far as a creditor is concerned, you are both responsible for the bills, even if only one of you ran up the charges. Arrangements must be made with the creditor, either through changing the account or closing it entirely and opening a new one, if one of you is to be released from liability for the debt. It requires a solid credit rating, and once it takes place it can dramatically change some credit dynamics. They also establish another level of credit history and stability by making their mortgage payments on time.