Quick answer: Usually not. Georgia is not a community property state, and under O.C.G.A. § 19-3-9 each spouse’s property stays that spouse’s separate property. A creditor generally can collect only from the person who signed for the debt. You can be responsible if you co-signed, opened a joint account, signed a personal guaranty, or filed a joint tax return. In a divorce, though, a judge can assign part of a marital debt to you even if it is in your spouse’s name.
This question comes up in two very different situations: a creditor is calling about a spouse’s bill, or a couple is divorcing and trying to decide who keeps which debt. The answers are different, so it helps to take them one at a time.
What Creditors Can Collect From You
A debt is a contract. As a rule, only the people who signed the contract owe the money. Being married to the borrower does not, by itself, make you a borrower. Georgia law keeps each spouse’s property separate, so a creditor with a judgment against your spouse generally cannot take your separate wages or your separate accounts to pay it.
You are likely responsible for a debt when:
- You co-signed or are a joint borrower on a mortgage, car loan, personal loan or credit card.
- You signed a personal guaranty for a loan, including a loan for your spouse’s business.
- The account is joint, rather than one where you are only an authorized user. An authorized user can usually use the card but did not agree to repay the balance; check the card agreement to be sure.
- You filed joint tax returns. Spouses who file jointly are each liable for the full tax due on that return. The IRS offers innocent spouse relief in some situations, but you have to apply for it.
Property you own jointly can also be exposed. If your spouse’s creditor wins a judgment, a jointly titled asset may be pulled into collection efforts even when you do not personally owe the debt. Medical bills can raise separate questions as well. If a collector says you owe a spouse’s medical debt, have the claim reviewed before you pay.
Debts Your Spouse Brought Into the Marriage
Student loans, credit card balances or judgments your spouse had before the wedding remain your spouse’s obligations unless you later signed on to them. In a divorce, pre-marital debts are generally treated as that spouse’s separate debt rather than divided as marital debt.
How Debt Is Divided in a Georgia Divorce
Divorce is where the answer changes. Georgia courts divide marital debts the same way they divide marital property: equitably, which means fairly, not necessarily 50/50. A debt taken on during the marriage for the family’s benefit (the house, the cars, household spending) is usually marital even if only one spouse’s name is on it. A debt one spouse ran up for their own purposes, such as spending on an affair or gambling, may be assigned entirely to that spouse.
So a judge can order you to pay part of a credit card that is only in your spouse’s name, and the reverse is also true. Our guide to divorce and debts in Georgia walks through how courts weigh those factors.
The Divorce Decree Does Not Bind Your Creditors
This is the part that surprises people. A Georgia divorce decree decides who pays what between the two spouses. It does not change the contract with the lender. If both names are on a loan and the decree assigns it to your ex, the lender can still come after you if your ex stops paying. Your remedy is against your ex, usually through a contempt action, and your credit can be damaged in the meantime.
A good settlement reduces that risk by requiring joint debts to be refinanced into one name or paid off by a deadline, closing joint credit accounts, and including indemnity language so the spouse who keeps a debt must hold the other harmless.
Practical Steps to Protect Yourself
- Pull your credit reports so you know every account that lists you.
- Close or freeze joint credit cards so new charges cannot be added.
- Do not co-sign new loans during a separation.
- Keep records of who paid what after you separated.
- If a house is involved, see our guide to foreclosure risk during a Georgia divorce.
Talk With Scot Sikes
If you are worried about debts in a separation or divorce, Scot Sikes can review which debts are marital, which are in your name, and how to protect your credit in the settlement. Consultations with Scot Sikes are $200. Call 706-494-6900 or send the office a message to schedule.
Frequently Asked Questions
Am I liable for my husband’s credit card debt in Georgia?
Not if the card is only in his name and you never signed for it. If it is a joint account, you are. In a divorce, the judge can still assign part of a marital credit card balance to either spouse.
Is Georgia a community property state?
No. Georgia is an equitable distribution state. Each spouse’s property stays separate during the marriage, and marital property and debt are divided fairly, not automatically 50/50, in a divorce.
Can a creditor garnish my wages for my spouse’s debt in Georgia?
Generally no, unless you are also liable on the debt, for example as a co-signer or joint account holder. A creditor’s judgment against your spouse does not by itself reach your separate wages.
If my ex is ordered to pay a joint debt and doesn’t, can the lender come after me?
Yes. The divorce decree binds you and your ex, not the lender. You can ask the court to hold your ex in contempt, but the lender can still collect from anyone who signed the loan.
Keep Reading
- Divorce and debts: who pays what
- Division of marital property in Georgia
- Foreclosures in a Georgia divorce
- Contempt and enforcement of divorce orders
- Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements
- Divorce lawyer in Columbus, GA
About the author. Scot Sikes founded the Law Offices of Scot Sikes in Columbus, Georgia, in 2006. He earned his J.D. at Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law, was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in 1999, and served as an Army judge advocate (trial counsel, Senior Defense Counsel and Deputy Staff Judge Advocate) before retiring from the U.S. Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel in 2017. His practice centers on family law, military divorce and military family law in the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit, and courts have qualified him as an expert witness on dividing military property in divorce. Read Scot Sikes’s full profile. Law Offices of Scot Sikes, 5 Bradley Park Court, Suite 101, Columbus, GA 31904 · 706-494-6900.
Last updated November 2026. Sources: O.C.G.A. § 19-3-9 (separate property of spouses); O.C.G.A. § 19-5-13 and Georgia case law on equitable division; Internal Revenue Code § 6015 (innocent spouse relief). This article is general information about Georgia law, not legal advice for your situation.
Questions About Your Situation?
Call the Law Offices of Scot Sikes at 706-494-6900 or request a consultation.