Divorce question about how court views debt at time of marriage and divorce.

[captain149]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? KS

If on the day we were married I owed 12K on a credit card with very low interest rates and the day we divorced a year later I owed 19K how will the court divide the debt? We both had debt going into marriage. When we would make extra payments on our cc debt we always sent the extra in on the smallest debt first until that was paid, etc. Made min payments on the rest. Obviously we still used my cc to make other purchases. Used mine since I had better interest rates and better credit. I guess my question is when I fill out the form listing assets and debts I want to know if I get credit towards paying down my debt before marriage first. Ex. Someone has 15K of debt at time of marriage. They make min payments of $200 a month. $140 goes to principal and $60 to interest. They make this payment for 12 months paying off $1680 of principal, but at the end of the year and time of divorce they still owe 15K on the card due to making purchases of $1680. Does the judge take that into consideration? Or do I just list what my balance was at time of marriage and what it is at time of filing for divorce?

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? KS

If on the day we were married I owed 12K on a credit card with very low interest rates and the day we divorced a year later I owed 19K how will the court divide the debt? We both had debt going into marriage. When we would make extra payments on our cc debt we always sent the extra in on the smallest debt first until that was paid, etc. Made min payments on the rest. Obviously we still used my cc to make other purchases. Used mine since I had better interest rates and better credit. I guess my question is when I fill out the form listing assets and debts I want to know if I get credit towards paying down my debt before marriage first. Ex. Someone has 15K of debt at time of marriage. They make min payments of $200 a month. $140 goes to principal and $60 to interest. They make this payment for 12 months paying off $1680 of principal, but at the end of the year and time of divorce they still owe 15K on the card due to making purchases of $1680. Does the judge take that into consideration? Or do I just list what my balance was at time of marriage and what it is at time of filing for divorce?

I think that the judge is going to feel that 12k of your 19k debt is separate debt. Yes, you paid down some of the principal during the marriage, but you used marital funds to do so, therefore I think that the judge is going to feel that you paid off a portion of the marital share of the debt, rather than the separate debt. Therefore I think that the marital debt, on that card, is 6k.