i am a jt/wros with my dad on his bank acct,he recently died. am i responsible for paying his credit cards?

Question

my dads goal was to avoid probate. he didnt have a big estate. he had put me on his ira as a beneficiary, and i know thats not subject to probate, but is subject to inherited ira rules. his furniture and household items i dontated to charity per his wishes. he had a life insurance policy for only 20k of which im the beneficiary, so i know thats not probatable. but its his bank account with only approx 10k where he put me on as joint account holder years ago to avoid probate. we sold his car before he died so i dont have that to worry about. so basically we are left with no probatable items. however. i called to cancel his credit cards, he only owed a couple of hundred dollars. do i have to pay those? i know im not responsible for his debts, but is the joint bank account viewed as still his "estate" that can be pursued by the credit card company? should i just close down the account or just move the funds to my personal account?

Answer 1

If you want to avoid probate you should pay it off yourself. Otherwise, it would have to be his estate that would pay them off (along with any other debts) and that means going through probate.

Answer 2

Sorry for your loss.

Ethically, you would tie up the loose ends to honor your Dad's memory. You certainly wouldn't want to find your deceased father being pursued by a credit collector. Then I'd close the accounts and be done with it. But honestly I don't know if you have direct access to the accounts. You will probably have to submit a death certificate to the creditors, and here's the good news:

Most credit cards agreements have a basic insurance coverage clause that pays off most or all of the remaining debt in the event of death. See what's available and good luck to you. :)

Answer 3

I am sorry about your loss. I went through a similar situation when my father passed. After my mom died, he had put me on his checking account to make it easier on me when he died.
Unfortunately, I wasn't as lucky as you....my father had a substantial amount of credit card debt. What I ended up doing (since I didn't know what I was doing) was hiring an attorney. And yes, there are truly fantastic ones like the one I got. I did this mainly because of the house and I didn't know what I needed to do in terms of the mortgage.
I truly don't know if his account would be considered as 'estate'. IMy attorney had filed a notice in the paper to notify creditors of the settlement of my father's estate. Although I was not obligated to pay off his debt, I did pay portions out via settlement because that was his wish.
Since your father's debt is very small, I would just go ahead and pay them off.

Answer 4

Yes, you must pay the debts. When a person dies, his "estate" pays the debts. If it is set up to avoid probate, that does not mean he does not have an estate, but that the estate does not need to be probated. But it does need to pay its debts.

Answer 5

To settle his estate all bills must be paid. It would be cheaper and easier to pay them now than have the credit card co take you to court over a couple of hundred dollars. He charged the amount, it needs to be paid.

Answer 6

This is a legal question that can vary from state to state. Google probate for your locality.

Answer 7

the credit card debts were your fathers unless your name is on them also you are in no way responsible call credit card company to cancel cards tell them he is deceased they will probably try to get you to pay them but you are absolutely not responsible unless your name is on them.VERY SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS

Answer 8

Credit cards are an unsecured debt. No you should not be... Just send them death certificates to prove his passing. Sorry for your loss...

Answer 9

This really needs to be in the business category, under personal finances.