topic Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder in General Credit Topics

Credit cards of deceased cardholder

disney2 — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 20:19:33 GMT

Is there a list of companies and how to best notify them that a cardholder is deceased? Such as phone number to call, email to send, etc? I've looked and can't find a list like that.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 20:41:04 GMT

@disney2 wrote:
Is there a list of companies and how to best notify them that a cardholder is deceased? Such as phone number to call, email to send, etc? I've looked and can't find a list like that.

When my mom died from Covid last year I was the one in charge of her finances. She had 14 open credit cards. Only 2 with balances and they where under $100 each.

To stop any identy fraud as criminals do look for recently deceased to open accounts in deceased names before the banks find out.

I simply printed a form letter saying the person has died and had an account with you.

I included her full name, ss #, and DOB along with a copy of the death certificate

The address to send this to is on the monthly statements or you can call the number on the back of the card and ask them for their mailing address.

I hope this helps

Sorry about your loss

Thanks

Mark

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

disney2 — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 20:50:05 GMT

Thank you so much. That does help a lot. I will get a letter done and make copies of the death certificate. He had many cards so I will get those right out.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

coldfusion — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 22:00:28 GMT

@disney2 wrote:
Thank you so much. That does help a lot. I will get a letter done and make copies of the death certificate. He had many cards so I will get those right out.

First of all, sorry for your loss.

You were given the correct info. Also, if a card has a balance either the issuer or a contracted 3rd party should reply with a letter addressed to "The Estate of XXX YYY" to coordinate final payment as the estate, assuming it is large enough, is now responsible for the debt.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

SoCalGardener — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 22:10:49 GMT

@disney2 wrote:
Is there a list of companies and how to best notify them that a cardholder is deceased? Such as phone number to call, email to send, etc? I've looked and can't find a list like that.

Please accept my condolences on your recent loss.

When my mother died, I just called the number on her Discover card (her ONLY card!), then they put me through to the department that handles this issue. I offered to send them a copy of her death certificate or whatever they needed, told them to send her final bill to me, and at the end of the call the CSR asked if I'd like to transfer the card to my name. WHAT?! I didn't know that could be done! I said yes, and thus inherited a card opened in 1991--with a perfect payment history. You may want to ask about that, too, if you're interested and it applies to you. I don't know whether all banks offer that option.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

ChargedUp — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 22:18:01 GMT

@SoCalGardener wrote:
@disney2 wrote:
Is there a list of companies and how to best notify them that a cardholder is deceased? Such as phone number to call, email to send, etc? I've looked and can't find a list like that.
Please accept my condolences on your recent loss.

When my mother died, I just called the number on her Discover card (her ONLY card!), then they put me through to the department that handles this issue. I offered to send them a copy of her death certificate or whatever they needed, told them to send her final bill to me, and at the end of the call the CSR asked if I'd like to transfer the card to my name. WHAT?! I didn't know that could be done! I said yes, and thus inherited a card opened in 1991--with a perfect payment history. You may want to ask about that, too, if you're interested and it applies to you. I don't know whether all banks offer that option.

Sorry for your loss OP.

Yes, that is something Discover has done before from reading the pages around here. I wish I'd known this as my mothers Discover card was opened in 1986. She passed in 2011 and I simply mailed them a letter with a copy of the death certificate. They mailed back that the account was closed and no balance was owed.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

SoCalGardener — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 22:24:37 GMT

@ChargedUp wrote:
@SoCalGardener wrote:
@disney2 wrote:
Is there a list of companies and how to best notify them that a cardholder is deceased? Such as phone number to call, email to send, etc? I've looked and can't find a list like that.
Please accept my condolences on your recent loss.

When my mother died, I just called the number on her Discover card (her ONLY card!), then they put me through to the department that handles this issue. I offered to send them a copy of her death certificate or whatever they needed, told them to send her final bill to me, and at the end of the call the CSR asked if I'd like to transfer the card to my name. WHAT?! I didn't know that could be done! I said yes, and thus inherited a card opened in 1991--with a perfect payment history. You may want to ask about that, too, if you're interested and it applies to you. I don't know whether all banks offer that option.
Sorry for your loss OP.

Yes, that is something Discover has done before from reading the pages around here. I wish I'd known this as my mothers Discover card was opened in 1986. She passed in 2011 and I simply mailed them a letter with a copy of the death certificate. They mailed back that the account was closed and no balance was owed.

Oh, that's a shame. I'm so happy to have a 30-year-old account, with perfect history, on my credit bureau reports now! It would've been great to inherit one from 1986. Oh well, live and learn, right?

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

NichelleN — Sun, 19 Sep 2021 01:53:20 GMT

@SoCalGardener wrote:
@disney2 wrote:
Is there a list of companies and how to best notify them that a cardholder is deceased? Such as phone number to call, email to send, etc? I've looked and can't find a list like that.
Please accept my condolences on your recent loss.

When my mother died, I just called the number on her Discover card (her ONLY card!), then they put me through to the department that handles this issue. I offered to send them a copy of her death certificate or whatever they needed, told them to send her final bill to me, and at the end of the call the CSR asked if I'd like to transfer the card to my name. WHAT?! I didn't know that could be done! I said yes, and thus inherited a card opened in 1991--with a perfect payment history. You may want to ask about that, too, if you're interested and it applies to you. I don't know whether all banks offer that option.

I experienced the same with Discover. My mother's Discover account went back to the late 80's. Unfortunately, my brother had been managing her finances and there were recent lates and a significant balance owed. I did not choose to take over the account when she passed, but I was offered the opportunity. You learn a lot when dealing with an estate, debt and the finances of a deceased loved one.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

Save-n-Invest — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 17:50:14 GMT

While waiting for the letters and death certs to be processed you can also write DECEASED RETURN TO SENDER on the outside of the bill. That shuts eveything down quickly.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

coldfusion — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 12:52:00 GMT

@Save-n-Invest wrote:
While waiting for the letters and death certs to be processed you can also write DECEASED RETURN TO SENDER on the outside of the bill. That shuts eveything down quickly.

You were successfull at this yourself? I would have thought they would be wary of accepting this type of notification at face value because it could so easily be abused.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

Save-n-Invest — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 15:41:20 GMT

Yes. Approiate notificaton were made as well. It take time to get death certificates especially with cause.

That was a recommendation of the funeral home to get a quick notification to credit card issuers. Published death notices give scammers a heads up while family is still at services.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

coldfusion — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 16:28:51 GMT

OK, thanks. I could see for example a STBX{W|H} trying to do something like this that out of spite, and it's a minor PITA to get an account restored that was closed due to being improperly flagged as having died. (some rocket scientist linked a death notice for someone out-of-state close to my age with the same alias to my LN consumer disclosure report)

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

SoCalGardener — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 16:31:58 GMT

@Save-n-Invest wrote:
While waiting for the letters and death certs to be processed you can also write DECEASED RETURN TO SENDER on the outside of the bill. That shuts eveything down quickly.

That may or may not work. It depends on what happens to the mail. *IF* it actually gets returned to the sender--and my mail carrier said a lot of it does not--the address it goes to is a data processing center. There, returned mail is handled according to the sender's rules given to the DP center. They may or may not distinguish between 'deceased' and any other kind of 'return to sender,' and simply update the account as stopping mail to that address.

I worked as the programmer at a major data processing center in Dallas for many years. I visited our mail room often--and did all the programming for our clients, including Sprint, Transamerica, Sony, and many others, based on their individual rules.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

Save-n-Invest — Sun, 26 Sep 2021 17:10:39 GMT

@SoCalGardener wrote:
@Save-n-Invest wrote:
While waiting for the letters and death certs to be processed you can also write DECEASED RETURN TO SENDER on the outside of the bill. That shuts eveything down quickly.
That may or may not work. It depends on what happens to the mail. *IF* it actually gets returned to the sender--and my mail carrier said a lot of it does not--the address it goes to is a data processing center. There, returned mail is handled according to the sender's rules given to the DP center. They may or may not distinguish between 'deceased' and any other kind of 'return to sender,' and simply update the account as stopping mail to that address.

I worked as the programmer at a major data processing center in Dallas for many years. I visited our mail room often--and did all the programming for our clients, including Sprint, Transamerica, Sony, and many others, based on their individual rules.

This was one avenue recommended by the funeral home. Only one. The standard notifications were done as soon as death certificates are available. Bureaucracy is involved in producing death certificates so there is that.

The return to sender seems to have worked in the case I specified. Statements from cc issuers stopped immediately. I was doing payables for the decedent while still hospitalized. There were zero balance accounts.

Funeral home notified SSA. This is of course for a fee. We purchased the services that we want.

The situation we are now in under the current Postmaster General did not exist at that time.

Again, only one way to begin the notification process.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

SoCalGardener — Sun, 26 Sep 2021 22:11:55 GMT

@Save-n-Invest wrote:
@SoCalGardener wrote:
@Save-n-Invest wrote:
While waiting for the letters and death certs to be processed you can also write DECEASED RETURN TO SENDER on the outside of the bill. That shuts eveything down quickly.
That may or may not work. It depends on what happens to the mail. *IF* it actually gets returned to the sender--and my mail carrier said a lot of it does not--the address it goes to is a data processing center. There, returned mail is handled according to the sender's rules given to the DP center. They may or may not distinguish between 'deceased' and any other kind of 'return to sender,' and simply update the account as stopping mail to that address.

I worked as the programmer at a major data processing center in Dallas for many years. I visited our mail room often--and did all the programming for our clients, including Sprint, Transamerica, Sony, and many others, based on their individual rules.
This was one avenue recommended by the funeral home. Only one. The standard notifications were done as soon as death certificates are available. Bureaucracy is involved in producing death certificates so there is that.

The return to sender seems to have worked in the case I specified. Statements from cc issuers stopped immediately. I was doing payables for the decedent while still hospitalized. There were zero balance accounts.

Funeral home notified SSA. This is of course for a fee. We purchased the services that we want.

The situation we are now in under the current Postmaster General did not exist at that time.

Again, only one way to begin the notification process.

As mentioned earlier, how a company handles returned mail determines whether this method will work. At the DP company, one of our Sprint projects was handling returned mail. You know those PO box numbers on bills, in Dallas, that start with 600XXX? Some of those were ours. The Sprint trays of returned mail would come in, our mail room would open them, then they'd go--still in trays--to the data entry operators. They'd pry the slit envelope open enough to see the account number; they'd enter it into the computer and move on to the next one. Later, in processing, those records were marked for deletion. Period.

My mail carrier said this method wasn't foolproof because it depends on how the sender paid for postage; if it's not a high enough class, 'return to sender' mail ends up in a big recycling bin at the post office. So in my mom's case, anything important I made a point to actually call!

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

Save-n-Invest — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 17:01:56 GMT

I'm not the gold standard of anything. Just added something that was recommended to me and seemed to work. Sorry.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

coldfusion — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 18:02:25 GMT

You've nothing to apologize for.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

SoCalGardener — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 18:20:59 GMT

@Save-n-Invest wrote:
I'm not the gold standard of anything. Just added something that was recommended to me and seemed to work. Sorry.

No, *I* am sorry I offended you! That certainly wasn't my intent. I was just doing basically what you were doing, adding things I knew from personal experience plus what my mail carrier told me. I'm sorry I offended you.

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

WTL1 — Sat, 09 Oct 2021 12:57:39 GMT

It's amazing that Discover does this, I just wonder if it's standard operating proceedure, or a quirk...

Re: Credit cards of deceased cardholder

disney2 — Sat, 09 Oct 2021 13:04:04 GMT

American Express did offer to let me keep his account if I wanted it.