Are you responsible for your spouse's credit card debt after they die?

Spouse's credit card charges

My husband says he actually heard the answer to this on a radio show the other day. The answer given was this: As long as no one else's names are on the credit card (or, I assume, the original application) only your father was responsible for his debt. Your mother should be okay. However, I don't know if this varies from state to state. It would be wise to check with an acct. maybe or with the atty. handling your father's estate - just to be on the safe side.

More input from FAQ Farmers:

• This happened to my elderly mom. The CC companies are crooks! They sent her cards with her name on it and the account number of my deceased father's cards. Thank God I was there because if she had used any of the cards even once she would have been responsible for the whole debt. As it was, I was able to stop her, contact the credit card companies and had the debt cancelled as there was no estate to speak of.(a small threat of contacting the attorney general of the state of Colorado about fraud seemed to help alot) Good luck

• The only person responsible for a cc debt is the person(s) whose names are on the account. A spouse is only responsible if the account is held jointly or if the married couple lived in a community property state. "CP" states consider all marital assets and all debts equally owned and equally owed.

First answer by Kat. Last edit by Macky. Contributor trust: 2945 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 214 [recommend question]

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