Advice on Joint CC

[MakingProgress]

My wife has two CC accounts that are joint between her and her exhusband.   One is "hers" and one is "his", meaning she has the actual card and the billing address is our home on one, and he has the card and recieves the billing on the other.  On "his" card there is a high balance and 90% util.  On her card their is 0 balance.   

She is contacting him to see if he will transfer/payoff the balance and close "his" card.   She will close "hers" but "his" needs to be paid off first to keep her total util from skyrocketing. 

My question is if he refuses to close and payoff the account within a reasonable amount of time what are the chances that US 

Bank will remove her name from the account?  Does anyone have any good addresses (email or physical) to contact Executitive Customer Service at US Bank?

[Anonymous]

She should charge her card to 90%, even steven.

[Anonymous]

This should have been in the divorce agreement. 

[CreditInspired]

Hmmmm. A concern -- If it is joint, aren't both of them responsible for any outstanding balances no matter which one charged to the card.

Two questions:

1.  Do the credit cards have different account numbers?

2.  If different numbers, has your wife checked with the CC company to see if she can close her card out since it's a $0 balance.

Something to think about.

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

Most lenders stopped doing "joint" credit cards years ago.   There are a few exceptions.   Did she and her ex make the other one an authorized user?   Her creadit reports will show under ownership.   Joint will say "joint with John Smith" or whatever.   The more common authorized user will say that.    And when an authorized user is canceled it will say "terminated" under ownership.

If it's authorized user she calls both lenders asking one to remove her ex from her account and the other to remove her from his account.   It is also very easy to dispute off of your reports if you are the a/u.   You just say it's not my account and I want this removed from my report.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This should have been in the divorce agreement. 

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divorce agreements have virtually no effect or legal status with credit card companies.  A divorce judge can tell the wife that her husband is responsible for one card and she the other but the credit card company could care less and would still hold both responsible for repayment

[Anonymous]

What the judge says to husband and wife are what count.  The cc company is not bound BUT if the ex husband or   ex wife do not follow order ie pay off/ close card then they can be held in contempt.  When I was divorced I got a call from one of ex credit cards that was closed but not paid off. She was late.   I called my atttorney and 1 hour later the first Mrs Backwoods was picked up for contempt. She had to pay before they let her out of jail. It was not much so she got a friend to pay it that day and she got released. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What the judge says to husband and wife are what count.  The cc company is not bound BUT if the ex husband or   ex wife do not follow order ie pay off/ close card then they can be held in contempt.  When I was divorced I got a call from one of ex credit cards that was closed but not paid off. She was late.   I called my atttorney and 1 hour later the first Mrs Backwoods was picked up for contempt. She had to pay before they let her out of jail. It was not much so she got a friend to pay it that day and she got released. 

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As I said, it means nothing as far as the credit card companies are concerned.  Whether someone is held in contempt or not has no effect on your legal responsibility to repay the card.  Means zip.  In your case if the late payment had been reported it would have shown on your reports just the same and there would have been nothing you could do about it.

[Anonymous]

Interesting topic, seeing as I just took a TU HP to change my status from "AU" to "Joint" on a BOA BBR.

In the God-forbid moment, I didn't want to lose the 120.00/yr. that CC earns for about 35.00/mo. spend.

While we were at it, I managed to get a 500% CLI and 2-point IRR - so, all-in-all, I'm happy with the result.