[Steve Carlton]

I'm not certain, but I think the divorce decree is just between you and your ex, and does not require previous creditors to remove an original applicant to the account. If the account has gone bad, they should be willing to settle for half the current balance, plus or minus. Doing so usually means you'll have "Settled Account for less than full balance" on your credit report, which sucks. Sometimes lenders will overlook something like that in lieu of the rest of your credit, since you have a legitimate explanation, including documentation.

You could try talking with a manager at the credit card company. Maybe he/she will let you settle the account with the derogatory history deleted from your credit file. Seems like kind of a long shot.

You'd probably have better luck making a deal like that with a collection agency, but it sounds like the account is still being held by the original creditor. Sometimes they'll make deals like that in exchange for getting paid, sometimes not.

I'm not aware of 1099s being issued for the waived portion of a settled account.