Divorce can be a stressful and possibly volatile event in a person’s life. You can times that by ten if debt is involved.
Our President, Ed Portelli, was recently invited by Dan Couvrette, the CEO of Divorce Lawyer magazine and Family Lawyer magazine, to speak about how to deal with debt during a divorce. Ed spoke about how OCCA Consumer Debt Relief negotiates with authority and “strength” on our members’ behalf to come up with a repayment plan with the creditors that works for the member. A member who is going through a divorce may want to resolve his or her individual or shared debt as quickly as possible. After all, the issue of money and debt can easily slow down the divorce settlement process. However, making quick decisions about how to resolve debt can be costly.
Ed revealed, “We found a lot of people jump the gun too quickly and pay off creditors, sell houses and use that money and they’re not using it wisely; because a lot of times the money is not enough to clear them outright. So they start to pick and choose what they should pay down, what they should pay off, maybe it’s by the one that they feel is the most pressing or they received the most calls about.”
OCCA Consumer Debt Relief eliminates all of the personal and emotional feelings from the negotiations with creditors. “We look at their situation clearly, look at what the new situation is going to be like, sort out what they can afford and then we will protect them and defend them, while we’re negotiating with the creditors so that nobody is squeezed beyond their means.”
In the case of shared debt, there lies the question of who is paying for what. This can lead to disputes as some debt may involve co-signing.
“As far as there’s two individuals on a debt, there’s one on some of them, so we want to sort out who’s is who’s, what you’re responsible for….In a lot of cases we have both individuals that come here, both divorcing individuals and they have separate accounts and we make sure that the finances are taken care of, it doesn’t hurt the other individual anyway, because we’re not dumping the problem on someone else, we’re simply taking your position, your situation and helping sort it out for you.”
Now what if a couple who is going through a divorce discussed their shared debt and came to an agreement about who is paying for what? In some cases, the debt will be paid and the divorce settlement will move forward. However, if the person who agreed to pay the debt somehow cannot afford to pay it, the creditors will come after that person AND the other spouse for the repayment. Why the other person? The personal agreement made by a couple does not protect them from a creditor’s legal pursuit of a debt. One way or another, the creditor will hassle both parties in a co-signed debt by any means they are legally entitled to.
Recent Comments