Credit card hassles!

Just how powerful is a divorce decree supposed to be??

I live in Illinois and I got divorced in 1999. My wife and I jointly held some high-balance credit cards and she had a hefty student loan. The divorce decree very specifically states that she assumes responsibility for the student loan and that I assume all responsibility for the credit cards.

All the credit card providers told me they could not remove her name from the cards and that's fine. However, one card is hiking up the interest rate apparently due to problems on her credit report! (Problems unrelated to that card, mind you.)

I wrote and asked them to disregard her credit report for interest calculation purposes because she is no longer responsible for the debt. I sent them a copy of the divorce decree to prove it, but they refuse to change what they're doing!

Is there any way that I can force them to do this? A regulatory agency perhaps? Do I have a leg to stand on?

No.
There is no way you can force a creditor to be bound to your divorce decree or your property settlement in divorce.

Thanks for responding, annefan. Can't say I'm happy to hear that, but I guess it means I can quit stewing about it.

You seem like you've encountered this question or situation before.

Not quite the same thing but...

My ex and I were divorced in 12/01 but property settlement wasn't until late 6/02. My ex evidently stopped paying all of his CC bills in 11/01. In June 02, just before our property settlement hearing I received letters from our two joint CC accounts saying "our credit limits" were being lowered (were cut in half) because of the overall debt load of my ex-husband due to late fees, charge-offs, etc. of his "separate" accounts. His credit report must of been awful by 6/02, and that's evidently what our joint creditors were looking at - his credit report - when they were doing their reviews.

Has your exwife cancelled/closed those credit card accounts? If not, this needs to be done.

And take heart, if your exwife is breaching any part of the stipulation from divorce, you do reserve the right to file civil suit against her for that breach.

Some suggestions

Assuming your ex hasn't continued to use the joint credit cards, perhaps you could get her to write the CC companies to remove her name from the accounts. You possibly might want to write them again too in conjuction with her letter. Unfortunately, this happened to me, too, when I tried to close our two joint CC accounts. I was making the payments so the CC companies were still being paid. I don't why when you get divorced and the common wisdom is to close all joint accounts but when you try to follow this advice most CC companies won't let you do this if there's a balance.

The only other thing I can advise is to pay off the joint CC's as quickly as possible or by making balance transfers to other credit cards in your name. The joint CC companies probably have to let you close the accounts if there's no balance, especially if you can get your ex to agree to close them in writing.