When a divorce happens, the two parties have to go from one checking account to two, two homes instead of one and separate accounts for everything from credit cards to utilities.

There are further costs to how to handle a divorce situation if in addition to splitting your assets, credit card debt that may have been a part of the shared family financial picture also must be divided. To the credit card company, that family credit card is the property of that shared couple which was the marriage. So when the union breaks up, the transition from a financial aspect of your accounts separating is not overnight.

So one of the many issues to be discussed and a plan made is how to separate the credit card debt. If the divorce is a shared responsibility so each spouse can work with the other to adjust the financial picture in a helpful way, then how to separate the credit card debt should be part of that planning. One element of that planning is the way to use shared assets to pay down that debt. Prior to selling those things, you should close those accounts, distribute the funds, and consider using the proceeds to retire your shared debt.

But it’s possible some of that debt load will continue past the divorce. In that way, if the family was carrying $10,000 in debt, if each former partner walks away with $5000 of the debt, that is at least reasonable and equitable and how each person handles that debt is up to them.

There are two ways you can proceed with splitting the credit card debt. The credit card company would prefer to negotiate with you about how to handle this debt load than deal with it chaotically after the fact. So they may be willing to set up separate individual accounts and split the debt for you.

But you can also apply the technique many of us have used to manage credit card debt. Each of you can set up a new separate credit card account. So if you take out individual accounts and use the balance transfers to move each partner’s shared part of the debt to those accounts, this method would be a clean way to divide the debt up.