How Does Child Support Affect a Credit Score?

Video Transcript

"Unfortunately in America the theme of divorce is quite common when it comes to the world of financial affairs, the item of child support comes into sharp focus. It is looked at in two different ways relative to your credit score. If you are a female with custody the child support that is coming to you on a regular basis from a responsible ex-spouse can actually add to your income stream and therefore increase your credit score. If, however, you don't have custody of your children and you are required to pay child support and you are not paying that child support there may be a court order put upon you that is negative in nature. It is automatically sent to the credit bureaus and it lowers your credit score until you become current in the payment of child support to your spouse. Child support is a very focal point relative to people that are divorced and it is made sure that the dollars are to be included in the family income stream. If there is any default in that regard the credit score will go down accordingly and sometimes remarkably if there is a large amount of child support that is due and payable. This is Patrick Munro talking about how child support impacts credit scores."