Authorized User of Credit Card Account of Deceased - what now?
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: