Credit and the single mom: Screw up your credit, screw up your whole life. And your children’s lives.

When I was going through my divorce, one of the big question marks was my apartment. It was by far the biggest financial asset my ex-husband and I owned together. Plus, it was my and my kids’ home  – familiar, close to our day care, and in a building full of neighbors who supported us when we were going through the worst of it. There was no way I was leaving.

Fortunately, I had good credit when I was married, and I also had an income (that’s important in more ways than you know – stay tuned for Part 2!). I kept those two things going until recently, when I refinanced, bought out my ex and now am a proud owner of a big fat mortgage with Chase. Yea me!

The point is, good credit gives you options. And when every single point in your life is a giant cluster tangle of uncertainty, it can be hard to remember to keep your nose clean and take care of business. Here I could point to the much-referenced study that found that women’s standard of living dropped by 26 percent on average after a divorce. But I won’t, because we’re not going to let that happen.

Today I interviewed Beverly Harzog, a credit card expert and consumer advocate, who said that women often let their credit slip (or never paid any attention in the first place), and realize the err of their ways only when it’s too late. “When you’re going through a divorce you’re so vulnerable financially. Even if you have a high paying job, you’re still insecure about the future,” Harzog says. “The better credit you have, the more options you have. Many women don’t realize that credit affects your whole life.”

Bad credit can make it hard or impossible to:

• Rent an apartment
• Refinance or buy a home
• Buy or lease a car
• Get a credit card
• Get a job (almost half of employers run credit checks on job candidates)
• Start a business
• Get a man (sorry, just telling it how it is)

Scared yet? Stay tuned until tomorrow when I’ll break down how to care for your credit, whether you’re recently divorced, in the middle of a separation, or fantasizing about single motherhood.

Related articles

• Best Money Tips: The Credit Edition (wisebread.com)
• Sometimes You Just Gotta Say Eff It (clutchmagonline.com)
• Credit Cards for College Students (cardhub.com)
• What To Consider Before Closing A Credit Card (boston.cbslocal.com)
• What is a good credit score? (cardhub.com)
• What is a good starter credit card? (cardhub.com)
• Splitting Up: How to Avoid Turning Your Personal Finances into a Divorce Statistic (savings.com)
• http://consumerist.com/2012/07/slightly-fewer-employers-checking-job-applicants-credit-reports.html (Consumerist)
• http://www.blackenterprise.com/money/7-signs-the-person-youre-dating-is-a-bad-investment/ (Black Enterprise)
• http://www.beverlyharzog.com/