General Credit Topics

[penelope10]

My father and I were joint on a JC Penney card I opened in 1994.  He has been deceased since 2006.  I honestly forgot this was a joint account until I received a replacement card in the mail today and one had his name on it.  Do I need to contact them and tell them he is deceased?  I am worried if he is removed, they may open a new account and since this is my oldest account , I don't want anything negative to happen.  In addition, I don't want to leave his name on it if it is against the law.  Any advice?

[LIGHTNIN]

Sorry to hear about your Dad.

I'm sure each CCC has a policy on how they handle this type of situation. 

Be prepared, JCP may ask you to show proof, may need copy of the death certificate.

I'll let others chime in, who are more knowledgeable about this.

I hope you get to keep the CC open in your name.

[RobertEG]

That should be a responsibility of the exector/executrix of the decedent's estate.  They have both the responsibility and authority to handle the assets and liabilities of the estate. 

I would contact the executor/executix, and ask them to clear up the status of the account.

[haulingthescoreup]

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penelope10 wrote:

My father and I were joint on a JC Penney card I opened in 1994.  He has been deceased since 2006.  I honestly forgot this was a joint account until I received a replacement card in the mail today and one had his name on it.  Do I need to contact them and tell them he is deceased?  I am worried if he is removed, they may open a new account and since this is my oldest account , I don't want anything negative to happen.  In addition, I don't want to leave his name on it if it is against the law.  Any advice?

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Several years ago, a member here posted that she was a joint account holder on Discover with her mother, who passed away. When she told Discover, they offered to let her keep the account solely in her own name, with the original opening date. So GEMB (JCPenney) might do the same with you.

Before you contact them, you might want to make sure that your other accounts are showing very low or $0 balances, in case they soft you to decide if you can handle it. Since you obviously have for the last few years, I would think that you'd probably be OK, but I'm afraid I've never seen this situation discussed here with a GEMB card.

If they do require that you have a new account, with a new opening date, and close the old one, the old one should (emphasis: should) continue to report for 10 years, contributing to your AAoA and longest history, if it's your oldest card. Unfortunately, this is a matter of custom and is not required by law, and it might well fall off early. OTOH, others have long-closed accounts that continue to report well past 10 years. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.