[Roetnor1]

I live in California. My husband passed away the end of January 2008. He had several credit cards where I was only the authorized user. An attorney told me that I am not responsible for the debt. However, the debt is appearing on my credit report. Also, the creditors are harassing me. How do I have the bad debt removed from my credit report? Also, how do I stop the harassing phone calls and letters?

[danielnoahsmommy]

From what I understand, if he had debt it should be taken out of his estate. Since it was technicaly your card I believe you are responsible. You created the debt.

[Fr_Chuck]

Moved from the introduction area,

Yes, from my understanding for the law, it is going to be changing but has not changed yet. But the bad debt can be shown on the authorised user credit report, but they can not collect them money from them unless they are other wise liable.

Your husbands estate would be responsible for paying it, was there a will, property left or other money they would look at for an estate who would be liable for paying.

But to stop the calls, write them and tell them not to contract you further on this.

[ScottGem]

If you are in a community property state you may be held responsible for debts incurred while married. But otherwise you are not responsible for debts you did not cosign for.l

However, the debts need to be paid from his estate before anything can be paid to beneficiaries. Has the estate been settled?

[Loan_Guy]

WOW... tricky situation.

Technically, as an authorized user, you can run up the bills, but not be financially liable. That said, you really need to rely on your attorney to advise you to see if you "inherited" his debt, for lack of a better word. It may vary state to state.

If you are not liable, it can still show up on your report as a derogatory tradeline if the payments were late or if the company decides to report it negatively. In that case, you may want to ask the attorney to write a letter from "the estate" asking that you are removed as an authorized user.

That is a tricky one. Let us know how it turns out.

LG

[danielnoahsmommy]

Scott gem, she had stated that it was her card on his account therefore can we assume it would be her debt since she charged the items on the acount?

[ScottGem]

scott gem, she had stated that it was her card on his account therefore can we assume it would be her debt since she charged the items on the acount?

Please reread the OP's note. She said she was an "authorized user". And authorized user is one who can use the card but is not a signator of the debt.

Nor did she say anything about charging anything on the card.

[IaMoDiNaRy]

Roetnor1,
I was an authorized user on a card that was in my then husband's name. Once we divorced, the debt continued to show on my credit report but he was paying it off slowly so it wasn't bad debt. I was told at the time that I needed to personally contact each agency by letter to inform them that we were in fact divorced, I was no longer an authorized user and the debt was solely his. It worked and they removed it. In your case, you should do the same, sending a copy of the death certificate if necessary. Your attorney could do this for you to make it more "official".

Good Luck and sorry to hear of your loved one's death.