topic Re: My wife's credit cards in Credit Cards

My wife's credit cards

Chanduwar — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 16:52:39 GMT

I live in Virginia. If my wife defaults in credit card payments, will I have to make the payments? Could I be responsible?

Will appreciate your input.

Chanduwar

Re: My wife's credit cards

gdale6 — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 17:36:03 GMT

If you live in a community property state or are a joint cardholder not just an AU then yes you can be held responsible for the payments.

Re: My wife's credit cards

Chanduwar — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 17:44:51 GMT

my state of Virginia is not a community state. None of the credit cards are joint. If she(my wife) stops paying her credit cards then what happens? All property is in our daughter's and my name.

Re: My wife's credit cards

addicted_to_credit — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 19:40:12 GMT

This sounds like she's gearing up to screw some creditors..... she can be sued and of course her credit is toast for several years. I'm sure there's other means of recourse they could take as well. I would not recommend this course of action....but if she must...

Re: My wife's credit cards

ChargedUp — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 19:51:07 GMT

If you're an authorized user on any cards of hers, I'd remove myself right now. Even though you may not be responsible for her actions on her cards, the cards likely report on your file as well. Removing yourself now will save you the headache of having to deal with the bureaus to remove the AU information should it become toxic. (which it certainly will if she defaults.)

Re: My wife's credit cards

Itgem679 — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 04:37:36 GMT

I understand we are all hitting hard times, and sometimes a person looks at a mound of debt and it can be overwhelming. Outside of filing bankruptcy, MOD CUT - NOT HERE , shirking payments and letting cards go (i.e. not paying) can come back to haunt a person for years after the debt was expected to fall off of their credit report. I know your wife will take her own path, but I just wouldn't recommend taking this route.

Re: My wife's credit cards

CreditCuriosity — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 20:07:20 GMT

@Itgem679 there is nothing a "credit repair" can do that you can't do on your own. They have no magical power and often can cause more harm than good..

Re: My wife's credit cards

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 01:11:48 GMT

What about having her call the CCC? They should be able to work with her until things improve. A much better solution than just "chucking" it.

Re: My wife's credit cards

Remedios — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 04:47:21 GMT

Sounds like a planned default.

On the surface, might even seem like a "good" idea, but it's not (obviously).

If she defaults, you will have to solely rely on your credit for a while, and it better be perfect because if her limits get reduced or cards closed, you will have carry most of it on yours.

What happens if you need a car loan for both of you?

Does your income supports substantial increase in DTI? If it does, help her not default in a first place. If it doesnt, you should worry about that.

While there are circumstances under which default is understandable, planning one is not a wise move.

Instead of worrying about if you will be responsible for payments, you should worry about being solely responsible for all credit needs in the future.

Dont make this any harder on both of you than it has to be.

Pay minimums if you must, reach out to creditors, do whatever you can

Life is hard when you cannot even get a postpaid cell phone when you need it, let alone bigger and more important stuff in life.

Re: My wife's credit cards

elixerin — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 09:47:34 GMT

YMMV, my pops "burned" several credit card lenders for well over 6 figures and (while i certainly dont encourage or follow his logic) he's still managing to get "approved" nowadays for 0 down financing on iPhones and multiples at that... with 400 scores and 8 figure collective debt that's a pretty crazy reality to come by... i always ask what the main game plan is and he always is so nonchalant about it all like he's taken advantage of something and it's not his issue to bear... some follow that mindset but i personally don't see it(but i hate to respect it cause he lives rather comfortably for 8 figures "down the drain"). To each their own but to share a little of what the "other side" of the credit world is like from a close thirdhand experience i think it might help out a little with your sitch.

First to answer your question... Not at all. Per my dad's example (interesting revelation after going through some family members CR's), i actually found that his DW was jointed on a couple cards and cars that were positive but went delinquent(him), upon the delinquincies the DW's report i guess had showed that all the now delinquient accounts were "transferred" and that was the end of the history (ending positive jointed and AU history for DW, among other positive lines and credit). Following the CR trail and later ended up confirmed with a convo he did mention he opened 3-4 cards under DW unbeknownst to what played out above(either extremely lucky or the norm im not sure.. those ended up going delinquent on DW reports not long after as well lol). My guess would be her scores were in like the high 700s from the prior years of positive history on other cards and some joint lines when he applied and "got" about another 25k-ish in cc tradelines

so yea.. their reports have eachothers "history" all over it (last name, addresses, businesses), but he opened 25k in unsecured cards under hers while happily living about 7-8 figures under with 400 scores right "next door" credit picture-wise and at around the same time.. in your case if hers goes bye-bye you guys have yours and (i think?) your daughters credit. I would be safe and cut all ties to her social cause you may not be as lucky as my dad's example.. im still unsure to this day how eachothers Joint or AU delinquincies aren't showing up on eachothers reports (that's what joint, maybe not so much AU was intended to operate amirite?)

i think from what i've seen on those CR's and just seeing and asking the Pops first-hand experiences/results based off his own reports (for a lot of collective debt hes rather worry-free which bothers me a little haha) i can pretty safely say you probably aren't gonna owe anything from this situation simply because it's not your debt to owe.. hope the extreme example shines a light somewhere.

Best wishes

Re: My wife's credit cards

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 09:36:37 GMT

I'll echo what Remmy said above, for all of her reasons. Clarifying that you don't live in a common property state, having all material titled possessions in your name and your daughter's (hers? That alone looks very suspect), planning to de-AU yourself from her reports and financially separate yourself fully before this goes down - all of this looks like planning to default/defraud her lenders. It has the same optics of people with insider information dumping stock in advance of a known upcoming sell off and devaluation.

If she walks away from all of this, she is definitely going to be besieged with collections and depending on the lenders, lawsuits. Her credit will obviously be annihilated, and as stated, you will then have to carry all credit burden going forward. Likely you'll also carry the majority of financial burdens in general too, as her income may be garnished/attached to repay the defaults, or to pay judgments and collections. Titled assets are traceable for ownership, and I imagine that if your wife is walking away from considerable dollar amounts of debt (which is likely - very few would walk away from $1500 of debt), and she is sued, they may find it funny that in a marriage, only one partner is the titular owner of every registered possession. Checking ownership and seeing that valuable assets were transferred to others before the debt was abandoned may create other issues. This is supposition on my part, the permissibility of tracing ownership, but my gut feel is that it's legal to investigate.

Im just going to throw this out here - you don't have to answer it, but please consider it. Is your daughter aware that she is the owner of whatever titled goods are in her name? If so, I hope she is fully aware of the responsibilities that accompany that. If not, I would urge you to reconsider doing so.

Bankruptcy holds a certain stigma that really isn't applicable anymore. It would be a far better way to go for her, and would absolve her of these debts if she passes the Chapter 7 means test. They would not haunt her as they would if she just walks away from them, and the rebuild would likely be easier than trying to recover from abandonment. She can file for it without you also needing to, so you could remain unaffected by her filing and keep your credit intact.

I would strongly reconsider what looks like a plan in motion. I don't see any way it ends well.

Re: My wife's credit cards

Chanduwar — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 16:15:29 GMT

Thanks guys for your valuable input.

Currently I am making most of the payments. In the current corona virus conditions where money is tough, I am just thinking ahead to what could be bad in future, like if income goes to a total standstill.

In a way I am between a rock and a hard place. I do not want her to default. What to do when money becomes sparce??

Our daughter knows this!!

Just very worried.

Chanduwar

Re: My wife's credit cards

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 18:43:14 GMT

@Chanduwar wrote:
I live in Virginia. If my wife defaults in credit card payments, will I have to make the payments? Could I be responsible?

Will appreciate your input.

Chanduwar

Let's confirm a few things first - a bunch of people started spouting information as if they assumed you were dividing debt in a divorce!

- Are you in a stable marriage, not getting divorced during this time?

- Did you co-sign in any way on your wife's cards - any of them?

- The fact that even in a married couple, a single spouse can file for bankruptcy without involving the other, leads me to believe that you will not be held jointly responsible for her debts if neither of the two aforementioned are the case.

Re: My wife's credit cards

Remedios — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 21:59:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Chanduwar wrote:
I live in Virginia. If my wife defaults in credit card payments, will I have to make the payments? Could I be responsible?

Will appreciate your input.

Chanduwar
Let's confirm a few things first - a bunch of people started spouting information as if they assumed you were dividing debt in a divorce!

- Are you in a stable marriage, not getting divorced during this time?
- Did you co-sign in any way on your wife's cards - any of them?
- The fact that even in a married couple, a single spouse can file for bankruptcy without involving the other, leads me to believe that you will not be held jointly responsible for her debts if neither of the two aforementioned are the case.

As far as "spouting" goes, OP has clarified that what "bunch" has assumed to be the case here, a planned default, is in fact what's happening.

You posted this after they clarified what they meant, which is not what you typed about, or "spouted", to borrow the term from you.

Re: My wife's credit cards

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:36:40 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Chanduwar wrote:
I live in Virginia. If my wife defaults in credit card payments, will I have to make the payments? Could I be responsible?

Will appreciate your input.

Chanduwar
Let's confirm a few things first - a bunch of people started spouting information as if they assumed you were dividing debt in a divorce!

- Are you in a stable marriage, not getting divorced during this time?
- Did you co-sign in any way on your wife's cards - any of them?
- The fact that even in a married couple, a single spouse can file for bankruptcy without involving the other, leads me to believe that you will not be held jointly responsible for her debts if neither of the two aforementioned are the case.

As far as "spouting" goes, OP has clarified that what "bunch" has assumed to be the case here, a planned default, is in fact what's happening.

You posted this after they clarified what they meant, which is not what you typed about, or "spouted", to borrow the term from you.

Still mad over me disagreeing with you about SYNC? https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Credit-Cards-that-are-closing-accounts-or-decreasing-limits-for/td-p/5990792/page/7

Re: My wife's credit cards

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:52:01 GMT

Lmao the last thing @Remedios is going to care about is someone disagreeing with her on the internet

Re: My wife's credit cards

Remedios — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 23:10:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Lmao the last thing @Remedios is going to care about is someone disagreeing with her on the internet

Oh noes, really??? Someone disagreed with me??? Well, we cannot have that

Re: My wife's credit cards

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 23:11:31 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Lmao the last thing @Remedios is going to care about is someone disagreeing with her on the internet

Oh noes, really??? Someone disagreed with me??? Well, we cannot have that

I still think that vegetables will lose to fruits.

Re: My wife's credit cards

Remedios — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 23:16:25 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
@Remedios wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Lmao the last thing @Remedios is going to care about is someone disagreeing with her on the internet

Oh noes, really??? Someone disagreed with me??? Well, we cannot have that

I still think that vegetables will lose to fruits.

Spout some fruits capable of fighting veggies high in fiber?

Oh...you cant???

Re: My wife's credit cards

coldfusion — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 01:07:39 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
@Remedios wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Lmao the last thing @Remedios is going to care about is someone disagreeing with her on the internet

Oh noes, really??? Someone disagreed with me??? Well, we cannot have that

I still think that vegetables will lose to fruits.

Spout some fruits capable of fighting veggies high in fiber?
Oh...you cant???

I can. Passion fruit.