Question on being an authorized user on a card when the primary user passes away....

[heather06]

i am an authorized user on a credit account (nordstroms) that my father was the primary on. it is the oldest reporting account on my credit reports. My father passed away a few weeks ago    and i am unsure how the process works. I never used the account - he added me on his 13 years ago to help me boost my credit scores when i was purchasing a house then. the balance on account is only $300 but i am concerned that it will post late since my brother - who is the executor on my dad's account has not made a payment. what happens in situations like these? Im assuming if the account is closed or posts a 30 day late payment then it will report negatively and my scores will drop dramatically. Any advice on how to handle? Am i able to call or go into the store and make a payment on the account in this situation? I just got the last 2 negatives off my reports and its all clean now so i would hate for a late to be posted and fear the huge drop my score will take when the account closes....

any advice is greatly appreciated!

[gdale6]

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@heather06 wrote:

i am an authorized user on a credit account (nordstroms) that my father was the primary on. it is the oldest reporting account on my credit reports. My father passed away a few weeks ago    and i am unsure how the process works. I never used the account - he added me on his 13 years ago to help me boost my credit scores when i was purchasing a house then. the balance on account is only $300 but i am concerned that it will post late since my brother - who is the executor on my dad's account has not made a payment. what happens in situations like these? Im assuming if the account is closed or posts a 30 day late payment then it will report negatively and my scores will drop dramatically. Any advice on how to handle? Am i able to call or go into the store and make a payment on the account in this situation? I just got the last 2 negatives off my reports and its all clean now so i would hate for a late to be posted and fear the huge drop my score will take when the account closes....

any advice is greatly appreciated!

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My Condolences. You are not responsible for making payments on an AU card. His estate is now responsible for settling it if there are any assets in it. I would just dispute it off your reports as not responsible for the account only an AU.

[heather06]

thank you gdale6 for the response. im assuming that my score will take a HUGE hit when this account is closed since it is the oldest reporting account i have. is there anything i can do to offset that drop in my score? Im assuming it will be a big one.   all my other accounts are more recent within the last 3 years since i went through a house foreclosure over 7 years ago and have spent the last few years rebuilding my credit from that. this particular account is 30 years old and the history plus the open credit line is helping my credit currently.

[RobertEG]

Contact the creditor and get yourself removed as an authorized user.

[rmduhon]

The only other possible option is to pay the balance yourself (If you have access to the account) then let it be closed. At that point it should stay on your reports for roughly 10 more years.

[Anonymous]

Your score may suffer some but as far as HUGE hit...

Generally speaking it's gonna depend on how well maintained the recent TLs you've added over the last few years

Do they all have balances, what are the utilization ratios etc

Your score has been/is heavily weighted towards what's been going on the past 36 months and of course with your primary/joint accounts rather than the one AU.... Yeah the age helped but again

Taking into account the other factors, I wouldn't expect your score to totally TANK over one AU

Not with the value being so heavily weighted on other things that have happened independently of the AU over the past few years

Now if your cards are maxed and you used the AU CL the masked utilization, obviously that's a different story for a different reason but even that is negated once the debt load is paid down...

[RobertEG]

Notifying the creditor of the deceased status of the card holder and paying the debt, if assets permit, is the responsibility of the executor of the decedent's estate.

The AU does not legally owe the debt, and payment is the responsibility of the executor.  Additionally, disputes by an AU are not permitted on an account for which they are not the responsible consumer.  I would pursue by removing the AU status, and thereafter removing any reporting based on the prior AU status.

Once notified of the death of the card holder by the authorized executor, then the AU should be able to remove the AU status by contacting the creditor, who will already have notice of the death and legally closed the account.