what happens to your credit card debt if you die and there is nothing (no estate, no spouse)?

Question

Do they come after the children? Who is legally responsible?

Answer 1

If there are no assets in the estate, the creditors are simply out of luck in collecting the debt. If there are cosigners on any of the debts, the cosigners will be liable for the debt for which they have cosigned.

Send the creditors a copy of the death certificate along with a letter stating that there is no estate for the dead person.

Answer 2

If when you die you have some assets, any creditor must be paid off before those inhereting can claim theirs.

The courts aren't clear whether people owed money by you can claim your jointly-owned home, but if you have "probated property", the people to whom you left money may have a problem. They must pay the creditors before taking the remainder. There is usually a statute of limitations on how long they can file a claim, but that doesn't help the heirs in the short run.

Answer 3

Legally, no. As long as yours is the only name on the credit cards, they can do nothing if you have no assets.

I certainly hope you are not thinking of dying just to get out of debt. There are less drastic ways to resolve things, trust me.

Answer 4

The credit card company will cancel the debt if you provide them with a certified copy of the death certificate. They will investigate to see if there are any assets they can attach and, if there is nothing to grab... they will cancel the debt.

Answer 5

The creditor will write the account off as a bad debt and expense it against earnings. You beat the system! Whoo Hoo!

Answer 6

That depends on if there is someone who knows about the card. If you don't have any family the address change request won't be put in and you'll just keep getting charged interest till the creditors come after you. It shouldn't matter though because you're dead so you don't have to worry about your credit.

My best friend just recently died and his wife called all his creditors to tell them that he died. She spoke to this one stupid ghetto fabulous girl at Capitol One and told her that her husband died and this stupid girl told her that if he had a charge off on HIS credit card it would look bad on his credit. My best friends wife just looked at me with a stunned look (we had it on speaker phone) and repeated to the idot that her husband was DEAD. It took the girl a second to figure out what to do. Then appologized for not understanding and asked her if she was going to pay the card off for him. At that point I asked to speak to her manager and when the manager came on I asked him to fire the stupid ghetto witch.

Answer 7

debt consolidation

getting out of debt is pretty easy with a debt consolidation plan
however it may get a bit tricky at times, I suggest you get as much information as possible online on this first,

a good place to start in my humble opinion is:

http://umgarticles.atspace.com/debt-consolidation.htm

Answer 8

relies upon on what you advise with the aid of "at the same time." If she owns actual sources in a joint tenancy with suitable of survivorship, the different vendors will recieve her proportion upon her demise. in many cases, if she owns actual sources with others in a tenancy in uncomplicated, her proportion is area of her sources and the valuables could bypass to her heirs if there is something left after her sources settles her charges. there are various different variables that ought to come into play although. this is maximum suitable to touch a community sources making plans lawyer.

Answer 9

The credit card company is SH**IT out of luck! They can't collect from anyone who isn't authorized to use the card. (Isn't on the application)

Answer 10

Nothing. It's just written off.