I have been on the phone all afternoon with credit card people and can't get a straight answer about this, does anyone know?

My Dad had a bunch of credit cards with balances and since he passed away I don't know how to handle all of it? They have charged tons of fees and his intrest rate is 30% on one he hasn't paid. There isn't much of an estate after the doctor bills, funeral expenses, etc., so what happens with it all?

They said something about probate court?

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

Flipper, was he single? If he was married, the spouse is on the hook, but if not, it goes to the estate, and the credit card company will try to sell some assets to pay the cost, otherwise they eat it.
Hope this helps!

Flipper, I'm so sorry about the loss of your father. I know it's a very hard time.

If he had any life insurance at all, that will go straight to the beneficiary and is not part of his estate.

Anything left that he actually owned is part of his estate... a home, a car, money in the bank, mutual funds, other property, etc.

Likely, anything he owes will need to be paid out from his estate. Proceeds from the sale of his house (if he had one) and car, etc., will go into an account, and his debts will need to be paid from that account. I believe probate court will have a hand in figuring out who gets paid first, but I could be wrong there. Whomever is the executor of his estate will be responsible for figuring all of that out.

Personally, if he owed any *person*, I'd pay them first. Like... if he owed Joe's Plumbing, I'd pay Joe before I'd pay Citibank.

If he owes more than his estate was worth, then the credit card companies are just out of luck. They can't come collect from you, they can't collect from any life insurance beneficiaries... they just have to write it off.

Flipper113, I'm sorry to hear of your dad's death. My sister and I were in a similar situation when my mom died in December, and basically learned that credit cards are the last thing that matters because they're unsecured debt. Here's a link to an article that may be helpful to you When your parents die broke - MSN Money Hope it's of some help to you.

Flipper, I'm so sorry about the loss of your father. I know it's a very hard time.

If he had any life insurance at all, that will go straight to the beneficiary and is not part of his estate.

Anything left that he actually owned is part of his estate... a home, a car, money in the bank, mutual funds, other property, etc.

Likely, anything he owes will need to be paid out from his estate. Proceeds from the sale of his house (if he had one) and car, etc., will go into an account, and his debts will need to be paid from that account. I believe probate court will have a hand in figuring out who gets paid first, but I could be wrong there. Whomever is the executor of his estate will be responsible for figuring all of that out.

Personally, if he owed any *person*, I'd pay them first. Like... if he owed Joe's Plumbing, I'd pay Joe before I'd pay Citibank.

If he owes more than his estate was worth, then the credit card companies are just out of luck. They can't come collect from you, they can't collect from any life insurance beneficiaries... they just have to write it off.

If he had assets (checking account, savings account, house, car, etc.), then an estate would needed to opened. It would probably have to go to probate court. If he had nothing, then the credit card company is SOL.

True, IF his life insurance has named beneficiaries and not just to the estate. We learned this when my husband's great aunt died and her insurance policy beneficiary was named to the estate -- not to a named person. The nursing home got the money. Had she put someone's name on the life insurance, they wouldn't have been able to touch it.

He does have equity in the house, probably $100,000 or so. His car is worth less than he owes, so that will be another negative we'll have to pay.


What I am really worried about it ending up negative after everything, with the funeral expenses, etc. I had to charge the funera; and is was almost $9,000, then we paid to get his house out of foreclosure, that was $7,000 and a home health aid we had was $1,450.

I did find a life insurance policy, but he never paid the premium, so it's worthless.

I talked to the couty surrogate and will be making an appointment as soon as I get the death certificate. Do you think if I told the credit cards, I have $x,xxx I could pay now, that they would take it instead of going to court? I really want to get everything done and wrapped up asap, all of this is draining.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

My stepmother died in an accident and my father was in the hospital for a while. I was named administrator of my father account by him to take care of everything. There were credit cards debt and misc bills and bank accounts in my stepmother name only, she was a shopoholic so there were alot, she did have money coming in though from a medical lawsuit she won, it came in monthly but it was in an account in her name only.

I had to contact an wills and probate attorney. Almost all of the debt was written off, some only required an original death certificate to be written off.

One creditcard bill had insurance, so look at everything carefully. It does not always say insurance. It will be a charge on the bill you can't figure out. That happened with one creditcard. Also the mortage had a random charge that even the mortage company customer service did not know what it was. I signed up online to the mortage bill with my fathers ssn# to click on the link of that misc charge, the link took me to a name, I did an internet search of that name in the link and it Turns out my father and stepmother had mortage insurance added to the bill and my father did not even know it. The house got paid for if one of the persons died. This was found totally by accident. So question anything that you can't explain.

I complied a list of everything, account numbers address and phone numbers. Called everyone, some only required proof of death, "death certificate". The others the attorney sent letters, she said all they had to do is comply with the letter and request payment from the estate but they had to follow a certain procedure. They had a certain amount of time to do this. "According to the lawyer, no one ever complies the correct way, they even had to request this by certified mail. therefore they would most likely be written off. "This is exactly what happened". Even though there was money in her estate.

Now, the collectors will try to fool you. They will continue to call and it will be a different company names because the original debtors sell their accounts to other collectors. We just had to ignore them, since they were written off and we are not obligated by the a court to pay.

This was in the state of Texas, I do not know if this applys everywhere.

i just wanted to say that i am sorry for your loss, hang in there.

__________________
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
Albert Einstein

My mom also had this happen with her mother, she ended up having to pay the credit cards, not that my grandmother had enough to pay all of it, my mom to this day has this debt she is paying, and my grandma has been dead for around 10 years. It's horrible.

happyfacekimi, was your mom's name also on the credit card accounts when her mother was alive? If not, they shouldn't have been able to come after your mom for that debt. If, however, your mom had co-signed for your grandmother so that she could open the account, or if she was a joint account holder with her on the card (but not just an authorized user - you can be an authorized *user* but not be an account *holder*), she would be liable for that debt.

Otherwise... the cc company should've been out of luck.