Death & American Express Authorized User Responsibilities

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the Death of your Mother,

To simply answer your question, No you don't have to or are required to pay. Technically it's not your account & you can't graduate to the Primary Account Holder "anymore".

The responsibility to pay is on the primary account holder "Your Mom". American Express knows this. American Express also know there is someone still paying on the account. Be weary of American Express closing this account once the account is paid in full.

Standard bank practices are to close down accounts once the Primary Account Holder has been declared deceased & the bank has been informed. You may be paying down an account that is subject to be closed when it reaches a zero dollar balance. I would stop paying and save my money. Either American Express doesn't know of the deceased or they are simply waiting until the account reaches zero. I personally think they don't know of the deceased.

If you're willing to give the money, the bank will take it. But your not required.

Good Luck 

P.S. If you decide to not pay the account then the account will go negative and as a authorized user it will show up on your credit profile as well. So remove yourself as a authorized user before you allow the account to become a charge off first. 

[pipeguy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Sorry for the Death of your Mother,

To simply answer your question, No you don't have to or are required to pay. Technically it's not your account & you can't graduate to the Primary Account Holder "anymore".

The responsibility to pay is on the primary account holder "Your Mom". American Express knows this. American Express also know there is someone still paying on the account. Be weary of American Express closing this account once the account is paid in full.

Standard bank practices are to close down accounts once the Primary Account Holder has been declared deceased & the bank has been informed. You may be paying down an account that is subject to be closed when it reaches a zero dollar balance. I would stop paying and save my money. Either American Express doesn't know of the deceased or they are simply waiting until the account reaches zero. I personally think they don't know of the deceased.

If you're willing to give the money, the bank will take it. But your not required.

Good Luck 

P.S. If you decide to not pay the account then the account will go negative and as a authorized user it will show up on your credit profile as well. So remove yourself as a authorized user before you allow the account to become a charge off first. 

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Once AmEx or any other "credit card" aka unsecured creditor, is imformed that the primary account is deceased and the estate is in probate - they can not report the account as in default to either the primary or AU. Probate freezes all reporting as legaly "pending" based on claims through the courts. The Personal Representative of the estate (administrator) typically has to send a death certificate and letter of administration to the unsecured creditor (this would not be medical bills or things like that), but once that happens a creditor ONLY has a claim against the assets of the estate.  Note that once the estate goes into probate, only the court or estate administrator (and estate attorney if signed off by the admin) can manage the estate meaning that "you" can't remove yourself as an AU from an account after the death of the primary. 

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry for the delay in responding back to everyone.  I've been out of town and am just able to reply.

Thank you for taking your time to respond to my post.  I really appreciate it.

If it's ok I would like to give you a few more details and get your opinion since it seems that you are pretty knowledgable.  I've learned that you are correct in that a negative account would show up on my credit report should i stop making payments today so I need to cover my bases as much as legally possible because we all know that Amex will try to come after me if I don't handle this correctly.

1.  Mom's card balance on the account is $0

2.  My card balance is approx $8k.  

3.  Card has not been used since her death 3 years ago.  

4.  All payments have been made from my personal checking account.

Can i remove myself as an authorized user even though i have a balance on the card issued in my name?  

If so, how much time do you suggest that I wait after I remove myself as an AU to advise them that the account holder is deceased?

I would never consider doing this if it weren't for the tight financial situation i'm in and although it may not be ethically correct I'm more concerned about legal responsiblilities and poor credit implications at this time.

Your reponse makes perfect sense and one that i had thought of before but was unsure.  I just want to make sure I do everything in the correct order not to throw up too many red flags.  I guess my main concern was that if an account manager were to review the account after death notification and sees that I removed myself as an AU with an $8k balance would they somehow seek criminal charges?

My mom's will was never probated at the advise of our family attorney because she really didn't have any assets at the time of her death.  I do have her death certificate that I can send in to them.  

Thank you again and I look forward to hearing back from you.  

[Anonymous]

Hi.

I'm sorry for the delay in responding as I've been out of town.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my quesiton.

She did have a couple of credit cards soley in her name that were notified at the time of her death and they wrote the balances off.  They didn't even need a death certificate because the specific department within CaptialOne looked it up online and saw the death notice.  Once I explained that the will was never probated because she didn't have any assets those two cards went away.

Apparently Amex handles (or tries to) their AU's a little differently from because of the very reason I'm posting my question.  Supposidely they had a policy change /terms of agreement in order to reduce their liability in cases like mine.  

The realworld advice that you gave is what I've been looking for.  We all know that there's a big difference between what someone is legally responsibly for versus ethically and I basically wanted to find out if their terms of agreement for AU's is legal and binding or basic leverage to get people to continue paying.

Thanks for all of your advice.

[Anonymous]

I've been looking for this info.  Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post.

Great advise for sure.  They do not know that she has passed because they recently sent new cards out to both she and I.  I'm assuming that since the account has always been in perfect standing that they haven't had a reason to check.  I never notifified them because I was hoping to find a solution to my situation.  I would have rather continued paying to a zero balance if there was a chance it could impact my personal credit negatively but from what I'm reading about is that if i request to be removed from the account prior to death notification then i shoudl be legally ok.  

My mom's death was fairly sudden which was a blessing.  None of the charges under my number were done with the knowledge that she was passing so hopefully Amex would be able to tell that based off of the purchase history.  

Thanks again for the input.

[bartoe]

I use to work for a Financial Institution.  If there was the primary party who passed and there was an authorized user, any charges that were made after the primary person's death would be owed regardless that the primary person had passed.  But that was just my FI and it was in MI.

[Anonymous]

Thanks bartoe for responding.

All charges that were made under the authorized user account were made prior to the death of the account holder. No card on the account had been used since she passed but payments have continued to be paid on time.

I recently closed my account and did receive notification that I am NOT responsible for the balance left of the account. This has been a huge relief and I really appreciate everyone's input. I will notify them in writing along with my mom's death certificate in about a week or so and I'll see how that goes but the great part is that they can't report anything on my credit report personally.

Thanks again everyone!

[Anonymous]

Thank you everyone for your advice.  I wanted to give an update so that hopefully my experience will help someone else in the future.  I apologize in advance for the length of this post but I feel it's necessary for other people to know the details.

Pipeguy and Desolatedata---you were absolutely correct.  I took both of your advice and here is the outcome.

A few weeks ago, I went ahead and cancelled my AU card independently and told the AMEX rep that I didn't need the card any longer.  I also requested that the credit listing be removed from all three credit reporting agencies.  I received verbal and email confirmation from AMEX stating that only the CARD HOLDER is responsible for the balance.  I subseqently filed a dispute with each credit agency to have the account removed from my credit reports although the account was in perfect standing.  My personal accounts are also in perfect standing so the removal shouldn't hurt my credit.  This card was at it's credit limit so overall it should help my credit to debt ratio.

I just talked to the specific department within AMEX that handles deseased accounts to notify them of my mom's death and requested her card be cancelled.  They were extremely polite and asked if she had an estate that could take care of the balance and if not that it was ok.  I told them that she didn't leave any assets and there wouldn't be a way to pay the balance.  The rep could not have been any nicer and said not to worry and that the balance would be taken care of.  I was pleasantly surprised at the level of customer service and compassion that i experienced today.  She realized that it had been a while since my mom's death but I just told her that it was an account that we thought we had closed before and it was an oversight.  Also she stated that they did NOT need a death certificate and the information I provided was sufficient.  

So to everyone else that has this question----even though Amex states that authorized users are responsible for the charges on their individual card, that was not the case in my situation.  I've been told 3 times from Amex that only the primary card holder is responsible for the charges.  It's still confusing to me how Amex can get away with stating that AU's are responsible but like someone said earlier, they will try everything they can to secure their debt.

I don't regret making all of the payments after my mom's death because i wanted to do what I felt was right but i can't tell you the amount of relief that this brings. I had searched the web for this specific information for months and months to no avail.  

So the key is like pipeguy and desolatedata stated----cancel the AU card first and then cancel the card holders account afterwards.  You must do this in correct order!

If any one has any quesitons I might be able to answer or help with please let me know.  This forum has proven to be a life saver.

Thanks again!! 

[pipeguy]

Saw this story today: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-happens-to-your-debt-when-you-die-2016-03-14