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"As Peter and I move through all this legal paperwork involved in splitting our lives apart, I&amp;#039;m confronted by one fact over and over: joint debt is exactly that, and will often stay jointly owned despite what your divorce decree says. You may decide to sign your house over to your spouse, or agree in the decree that one of you take over the payments on one credit card while the other takes another one - and it&amp;#039;s all fine as long as the payments stay current. If one of you should lose a job or fall behind for other reasons, your bank can come after you or your ex regardless of the language of your divorce decree. The reason is simple: your agreement with them predates the divorce decree. When payments are in arrears, the bank can legally go after the other account holder, and will most certainly do so. That&amp;#039;s why it&amp;#039;s always best to pay off as much debt as possible and consider refinancing the home solely into the name of the spouse who is taking it over. (Not an option in my case, but it would be preferred if we could do it). Another thing to watch out for: Many banks won&amp;#039;t let you remove your name from a loan or credit card account unless it is paid off in full. If your spouse assures you they are paying it off, insist on proof and then contact the bank personally to have your name removed from the account. I had a friend who was assured by her spouse that a certain credit card had been closed out, when in reality, her ex had taken cash advances on the card of nearly $9,000. He wasn&amp;#039;t paying, and they started coming after her, since her name was never removed from the account. Just another one of the little details that can become an enormous thing if you don&amp;#039;t take care of it while you can.  Were there any little details that you missed in negotiation that came back to haunt you? Let me know! I want to make sure I&amp;#039;m covering my bases! [Follow Ellie on Twitter and Facebook] "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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