StricklerIrving972
Losing a loved one is definitely a time period of high stress and confusion. Many problems that arise are somewhat expected: a mountain of credit debt typically catches grieving members of the family by surprise and without the slightest clue concerning how to handle creditors. Drop Debt Coach, Harvey Z. Warren says that even he was bewildered with this question.
Recently, a friend of his lost his father, let's call him up Edward, unexpectedly at 67. After reviewing his father's affairs together with his sister they faced a big surprise - twenty-one charge cards with an outstanding balance of just over $110,000. The friend called Harvey in for some hands-on help to cleanup Edward's mess and put an end to the inevitable deluge of collection calls.
His first question was, "Are we responsible for Dad's debt?"
Surprisingly, the answer is, "Maybe yes, maybe no."
Because the author of Drop Debt, Surviving Credit Card Hell Without Bankruptcy, you might figure Harvey would have a more definite answer. To tell the truth, until then, he had only helped live clients. What he learned is intriguing and important for every family member to understand whenever they ever face similar unfortunate circumstances.
The surviving children and their mother carefully gathered all their father's recent statements and the credit history. Much of this information was handy because Edward had read Harvey's book and knew that an organized, transparent and courteous approach to bill collectors will frequently enable you to get what you would like. Their father had desired to settle all of his debts without bankruptcy. Edward's sudden illness stop his effort, but not a stop to his plan.
Ironically, at the time Harvey sat down with the family to help make the calls, it would happen to be Edward's 68th birthday. These were nervous, dreading harsh positions in the creditors. Following a five-hour marathon calling session several clear facts emerged:
Creditors are very courteous and careful with bereaved family members. Creditors have particular programs to solve debts of deceased customers. Resolutions can be accomplished rapidly if you know what to ask for.
With twenty-one cards, Edward were built with a balance with just about every major charge card issuer. All of them were respectful and offered condolences.
Soon after calls the team remarked that the following script was everything was necessary to get the resolution started, "We are calling in regards to a charge card holder who died last week. Would you please transfer us towards the correct representative?"
Even before giving the name and account number of the deceased, these were transferred to either the "probate" or "estate" department. Some of the banks immediately disclosed that neither Edward's wife nor his children were responsible for the invoices as they were not signers around the cards.
If the deceased may be the only one authorized to sign up the card, family members don't have any obligation to pay your debt.
Why the banks have estate and probate departments is they may - and Harvey emphasizes may - pursue the estate of the deceased to recover the outstanding balance or some portion of it.
Edward have been ill for several months and every one of his cards were delinquent and had incurred interest and penalty charges. All those charges were voluntarily reversed "in case" the probate or estate departments were inclined to try to collect the balances. Banks were informed that there was no "estate" to allow them to lien or attach. They informed the kids there were some formalities covered in bereavement letters sent to Edward's last known billing address. They asked the kids to complete and return the forms, suggesting that this may likely conclude the matter and shut Edward's files.
The gathering clients are sometimes an imprecise science. Harvey requested that every of the card providers give a letter of full discharge for the children to put in their files. Chances are that, with twenty-one cards, at some point in the future, the debt is going to be accidentally sold to some third-party collector which will attempt to collect. Sending the full discharge letter is the simplest and fastest way to stop that improper activity.
One last note: be sure you say the following words, "Out of respect for that privacy of the family, can you please immediately cease all collection activity and turn from the dialers to prevent the collection calls." The very last thing a household in mourning needs is to answer collection calls on the credit debt which will never be due.
