When you realise that your marriage is coming to an end and you’re going to get divorced, one of the first things you’ll be tempted to do is to stop your joint account and create a sole one. Especially if you’re the main earner. This sounds like a good idea as it means your soon to be ex won’t have access to your account any more and can’t use your debit cards, credit cards or cheque book.

There are however a few things to watch out for if and when you do this.

Firstly, any loans on your account will transfer into your name, so while you’ll gain ownership of the account and the money being paid into the account, you’ll also become liable for any loans on the account. You’ll be removing your partner from liability.

Also when doing this you’ll find that bills associated with your account will fall into your name. Mortgage,  utility, loans… everything will become your responsibility.

While this may sound good, you won’t actually be the owner of the property you owned together, you’ll just be liable for it all.

In addition to this, because your property will still be in joint names any decisions made surrounding it will require joint decisions. Plus any money you receive will be in joint names, and with no joint account you won’t be able to cash it.

In short, stopping your joint account isn’t as simple as it sounds. You need to look beyond that step and see what you’ll be paying for yourself, compared with what you’ll actually own.

Clive Bellmore