Joint Bankruptcy Filing

[Anonymous]

So I have kind of an odd question.
Me and my wife are doing a joint BK7 filing. She has zero debt under her name. The reason she is also filing is because our lawyer said Washington is a community property state and they may come after her for some of the joint credit cards that were once under her name.
Now, she hasn’t had anything her name for several months and her credit score has just fallen off the face of the earth. FICO can’t determine her score, as if she has no credit.
It used to be like a 630 score.
My question is, how will a BK appear on her credit report if she didn’t owe anyone any money?

[Lurker22]

it'll appear exactly as yours does - as a chapter 7 bankruptcy filing (there's no degree of bankruptcy filing, it's you filed or you didn't) 

[Anonymous]

The thing is though that there’s nothing on her credit report. So will it just show a bankruptcy because there’s no accounts to be “included in bankruptcy” if she didn’t discharge anything.

[Lurker22]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
The thing is though that there’s nothing on her credit report. So will it just show a bankruptcy because there’s no accounts to be “included in bankruptcy” if she didn’t discharge anything.

---

I would suspect it would only show the information from the bankruptcy court (that she filed) but being in a community property state I'd ask your attorney if the creditors could include your accounts and the bankruptcy trade line (only reason i'm questioning it is because your attorney advised you to include her in the filing because they could come after her in a community property state making me question if they'd be able to add these accounts to her report) 

[Anonymous]

In a community property state the non-filing spouse can be protected from collectors when you get the community discharge. This is called a “phantom discharge” and would remain in effect for as long as the marriage, meaning if you were to later get divorced she could become liable. If you include her in a joint BK then they can never come after her. If her credit score is that low right now she would probably benefit with a score boost by being included and starting fresh.