Who Pays the Credit Cards and Mortgage in a Divorce? | Florida Debt Division Explained
Transcript
April Phillips: Who’s going to be responsible to pay their credit cards, the mortgage, and all the rest of the money that we owe?
A.J. Grossman: So, in Florida, the starting point is an equal division, or a fair division, of your debts. Now, that’s not always possible. It’s not always practical.
For example, if a wife has all of the credit cards in her name for whatever reason, it doesn’t always make sense to have the husband or the other spouse be responsible for making the payments on those credit cards.
So, sometimes what happens is one of the spouses, maybe the higher-earning spouse, will take responsibility for the majority of the debt. They will be responsible for making the payments on all the credit cards, making the payments on a mortgage, making payments on loans for cars or student loans, whatever the debt may be.
But the starting point is typically equal. Couples that incur debt during a marriage are equally responsible for that debt, so 50% to one spouse and 50% to the other.
But that doesn’t always make practical sense.
