Unusual situation perhaps... I am the authorized user on a number of US credit card accounts on which my father was primary cardholder. My father recently passed away overseas (as a dual citizen of US and the country in which he died) and his estate is being handled by the court of the European country where he died. My question: should I notify the creditors right away, and cease making payments (which I'd personally been making since I was stateside and thus my address was used as the address of record since my father moved back to his home country 12 years ago), while I am still an authorized user on the accounts, or would I be better off writing a letter to have myself removed as authorized user and have those accounts removed from my credit reports, and THEN notify the creditors of his death? The laws of this particular country do not require that debts be paid prior to the distribution of inherited assets, nor does the process entail appointing an executor. (It is not a large estate in the first place - totally exempt from US estate tax. Most accounts were protected with "probate-avoiders" i.e. beneficiary designations and transfer-on-death plans, and the remaining estate would not suffice to cover these debts.) So it is likely the creditors would have to attempt to collect through other means. There is approx 25K owned on 4 cc accounts. Any advice?. as to both what is legal and what is wise... if I cease making the minimum payments, without notifying the creditors of his death, the account will go into default and impinge on my credit reports negatively (since they ARE being reported as AU accounts with all 3 credit bureaus). If I notify them, I may be opening a can of worms that not sure my siblings and I will quite know how to handle. :confused:

I am sorry to hear about your father's death.

Stop using the credit cards since you have knowledge of the primary card holder's death.

If you continue to use them, then I am probably sure that you will become liable for any future charges.

Should you inform them? Are you the Executor of your father's will? What you need to do is inform the Executor of your father's 4 credit cards and it will be the Executor’s job to inform the Credit Card companies.

Should you keep paying the bills? No. Inform the Executor that there is $25,000 of debt outstanding on the credit cards and it will be up to him/her to settle outstanding debts.

In the mean time while you wait for the Executor to settle the debts, you should write a letter to have yourself removed as an authorized user and have those accounts removed from your credit reports.

Also if you continue to use them, then you might be accepting responsibility for all the debts on the cards, according to card holder agreements.

Oct 2008 - I am currently in the same situation as you were in 2005. I wish I knew how it turned out. I was an authorized user on my husband's cards, although he used his cards, and I used my own, and never the twain shall meet.

However .. when he died, I tried to pay his as well as mine until I found out the govnernment thought I made too much money (HA) and I would get no survivor benefits for social security. There fore ... two-income debt trying to be paid on one (low) income.

I sent a death certificate to the credit card companies on his cards, closed the accounts, and cut up any old cards. However ... they refuse to remove the debt from my credit reports even though I was only an authorized user who didn't even use his cards except on rare occasions when he asked me to.

I am paying my cards on time, but his cards have effected my credit rating. I don't know what to do. Discussing with them does no good, nor does talking to Trans Union, etc. They say only the credit card companies can remove the debt.

What am I to do???

DMARIB (sounds Indian, doensn't it? lol)