[quadrophenia]

Hi,

I've been around and around with the credit company and the furniture store this happened at, but here goes.

I have some kind of e-mail service that monitors changes to my credit report. Today I come home and check, and there is a negative report about being over the credit limit for GE Money Bank. I used to have an account with them that me and my former fiancé used to buy furniture, but I hadn't used it in ~2 years, and I thought the account had been closed by the company.

Come to find out she went in back this past October and used the credit account to charge $2000 worth of furniture in the store. I didn't know anything about this as we are no longer together, and it took me an entire afternoon to sort out what had happened. (At some point they apparently called her to discuss the problem and told her that I was at the store threatening to call the police, which I never said anything about. Go figure.)

She is apparently delinquent in making a payment because a late fee brought the balance up to $2035, and that is why I received the negative feedback on my credit report.

Is there anything I can do to take myself off the account used? The account has been inactive for almost two years, and I did not know anything about the charge until almost two months after it happened. I am no longer with her, but my credit is being held responsible for this charge because she used the open joint account we opened years ago.

Should I hire a lawyer?

Thank you for any help! It is much appreciated!

[oneguyinohio]

Call the card company and tell them you want your name off the account. You now currently own half of the furniture she has... They may not be favorable to allowing that with any balance on the card.

That's not the kind of parting gift you want to give her... You might have a hard time getting anything out of her though since you never closed the account or had your name taken off when there was no balance...

Is she making any effort to discuss the matter?

Yes, you should get legal advice... or pay the bill if the lawyer is going to cost you more than the $2000 to fight for you.

I would demand that the furniture be repossessed immediately unless she can make other payment arrangements. It still may not get the amount off your hands as for the debt.

Not sure if reossesion of the furniture is a real option to do either, but you might have a cause to sue the ex for your money...

It's one of those things that you never thought of back in the day you two first got the card together... I'm sure it happens a lot though and the reason card companies like to have multiple people on accounts... so many will be potentially responsible for something one party can charge...

[quadrophenia]

Thank you so much for your answer. That gives me a few avenues I hadn't considered up to this point.