Death of AU cardholder

[Anonymous]

I'm an AU on two of my dad's gas cards. They're both 50 yr old accounts so they've helped my AAoA.

My dad died in January and I made sure both were paid off but one of them just reduced the CL by $500 and it dropped my Experian 27 points!! I'm still at 10% utilization so no clue why it freaked out. TU didn't change when it reported.

Should I leave this alone, close both accounts (I'm executor), or have myself removed as an AU? Both have been sent notices of death by my attorney for the estate but haven't made a move to close the accounts.

[Jnbmom]

Sorry for your loss.

When my mom passed I was an AU on 2 of her accounts. After her psssing within a week I called the creditors myself and let them know of her passing, the accounts were closed within days and reflected that on my reports .

[Remedios]

I'm sorry about your loss. 

You are legally obligated to inform them, especially as the executor of the will. 

They will end up with this information anyway, I'm surprised they havent already, but I wouldnt wait another day to let them know. 

[Andypanda]

My father passed away a little over 2 years ago, and i was an au on his Costco visa and amex bce. In under a month i had the cards paid off and closed. At the time i had no cards of my own. In under 14 months i had the same cards as the primary cardholder.

[Anonymous]

They were already informed by my attorney well over a month ago. Neither closed the accounts. I'm trying to figure out what to do to best preserve my scores.

[Jnbmom]

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@Anonymous wrote:

They were already informed by my attorney well over a month ago. Neither closed the accounts. I'm trying to figure out what to do to best preserve my scores.

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You need to call them directly then, I forget what the department is called but if you call the regular CSR they will transer you. Just make sure you have all your father's info.

[Anonymous]

Okay but none of this is really answering my question. If the accounts will end up closed, am I better off keeping them on my reports or having myself removed as an AU?

[Jnbmom]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Okay but none of this is really answering my question. If the accounts will end up closed, am I better off keeping them on my reports or having myself removed as an AU?

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Well those cards that i was an AU user on ( actually there were 3), those DO NOT appear on my reports, once she was reported deceased the accounts were closed, balances were forgiven and  and they disappeared from my reports.

[K-in-Boston]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Okay but none of this is really answering my question. If the accounts will end up closed, am I better off keeping them on my reports or having myself removed as an AU?

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Depending on the lenders, they may remove you as an AU when the cards are closed.  If they are currently hurting you in some way (like your average age of accounts being reduced, there is any history of late payments on them, or if an account is fairly new) then I would suggest asking to be removed just in case.  Otherwise, if they're not hurting you or if they are helping you (which is likely the case if they have been opened since 1970), I would not ask them to remove you and hope that they don't do it themselves.

[MrZero]

When they are closed they'll possibly stay on your report so you'll have them reporting for another 10 years so it's not a huge deal I was an AU on my grandmother's Discover from when it was opened until she passed away and it's on EX and TU though for whatever reason not EQ and I'm not sure if it ever was. I hope all non-balance payment activity on them stopped after he passed away, they should have been closed months ago.