Are you obligated to pay your deceased spouse's credit cards?

Chris Merrill: Are you obligated to pay your deceased spouse's credit cards?

Tom Olsen: Okay. I would say the answer is, depends on whether or not, your name is on that account too.

Chris: Exactly.

Tom: Deceased spouse, John had a credit card and his name only, and John passes away. Will his wife, Mary be obligated to pay John's credit card bill? As far as I'm concerned, the answer is no.

Chris: I agree.

Tom: Yes.

Chris: I think when you said it depends is it, if it's in that spouse's name only, then it would only be that person is responsible. If however, and I think this is where maybe the part that people get a little confused. If one person initially got the card, but now there's an authorized user and the spouse is the authorized user, it is possible that they could be on the hook as part of it, because if their information and social was given as part of getting that, and they were added on to the account, that's possible. That they're responsible.

Tom: Let's assume that they're not an authorized user, and now the husband has passed away with credit card debt in husband's name only. Let's assume that they were like most married couples and they owned everything, jointly their home, their bank accounts, et cetera. Well, by owning everything jointly, it means that when husband passed away, everything automatically went to wife, no headaches, no hassles, no probate. The credit card company, if they want to get paid from deceased husband for these credit card debt, the only way they'd be able to do so would be to file a claim in the husband's probate estate.

If he owned everything jointly with his wife, there's not going to be a probate estate.

Chris: Exactly.

Tom: That means a credit card Company's not going to get paid.

Chris: Exactly. That's right. If, and only if there's a probate, that is when the credit card company could file, but like you said, Tom, if there's not a probate, they don't have a place to file that. Here's the other that I think is something significant. What we do here from clients as well is that the credit card company will call the surviving spouse and they bully you into thinking that you are responsible.

Tom: Yes, I bet.

Chris: If you don't check on it or talk to somebody or know yourself and know the answer, we're telling you the answer right now. As long as there's no probate and your deceased spouse is the only one that's signed on that card, you are not responsible.

Tom: I've had many people come in over the years with that same question and I basically, I tell, Mary, look, you got two choices. One is, that you can take those bills and you throw them right in the garbage if you want to. Or number two, if you want, you can generate like a form letter saying, "Hey, my husband's Bill has passed away. Here's a copy of his death certificate." There was no probate done for you. I'm just letting you know, if you want to zero out these bills. If you want to go to the trouble to do that form letter and send a death certificate, not even a certified copy, just a regular copy of the death certificate.

That's usually the path that most people make. It makes them feel more comfortable-

Chris: Exactly.

Tom: -they just haven't simply ignored that situation.

Chris: Correct.

Tom: What do you think?

Chris: I agree. I think Tom, that most people because they want to be able to have peace of mind that they want to do something to take care of it and let them know and close and have a closure. The number one way to do the closure is to do what you said, which is to do a form letter and let them know, and then they can, again, cancel out the accounts. Sometimes it's a matter of people speaking to these medical bill companies and or credit cards, and maybe they have a particular form, so you can even use their form.

Sometimes I know I talk to clients and it's as simple as them having that phone conversation and then the company will take care of it. That's great. That means then the company is doing the right thing, but we also want you to be aware, Mary, that if by chance, any one of these medical bills, the companies or credit card companies give you a hard time, they are not allowed to. They cannot try to bully you into thinking that you have to pay for that when legally you do not.

Based upon your circumstances that your husband is the only one that's signed for those, and now he has passed away, you do not have a legal obligation to pay for those bills that were in his name only.

Tom: I would say that clients have reported back to us, as a general rule credit card companies are anxious and willing to very much cancel out that credit card debt for the deceased spouse, nice enough to write back a letter and say, "Okay, we get it. We're forgiving this debt for your deceased husband." You actually get something in writing saying so.

Chris: Correct. It's even better when you have something in writing, just in case something crops up for the future. That's better. You're right, sometimes that's with a phone call. However, we do have those situations where the companies are leading you to believe that you have to pay on their behalf and you don't.