How to stop your ex ruining your finances

How to stop your ex ruining your finances
How to stop your ex ruining your finances

Sadly not all relationships last a lifetime, and there are a plethora of things that have to be negotiated over and decided when a marriage ends.

While it may seem like your finances, joint or otherwise, would be a priority, there are often so many other issues going on that they get overlooked.

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We take good care when we're dividing the house, the DVD collection, or our friends. We are also likely to spend time and energy unwinding any joint financial arrangements, closing joint accounts, dividing joint debts, and selling things we owned together.

However, we don't realise that when it comes to our finances, those connections linger, and our ex could still be exerting a shocking level of control over our money.

According to a report by free credit checking service ClearScore, 11.7 million of us have taken out a joint financial product with a partner we are now separated from. And while most of us are quick to close that product down after a split, we are still financially linked with that individual for a further six years. It means that if your ex is bad with money, fails to pay bills, and runs into debt issues, you will be associated with their poor credit history for that entire period.

It could mean that when you try to start afresh - buy a new property and find a new job, you may be stopped in your tracks by a poor credit rating. Justin Basini, ClearScore CEO points out: "Millions of people risk being haunted by the financial ghosts of partners past. Even if your own credit report and score are in rude health, the way you are viewed by lenders can be negatively affected by your ex partners."

More than two thirds of people are completely ignorant of this quirk in the system, so they're more likely to fall foul of it without realising what's going on.

What can you do?

The first step is to get hold of your credit history, to check you no longer have any products still open with an ex partner. If there's anything you have forgotten to close down, now is the time to do it.

You will also be able to see from your report whether you are being linked financially with an ex. If you are, you will need to contact the credit reference agencies, explain you have split up, and ask them to sever the connection.

Because while most of us won't have to worry about meeting up with an ex in a criminal court, we don't want to bump into them hanging around in our finances either.

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