Tom McCutcheon – Attorney at Law
Q: If I die and have credit card bills is my family responsible for those bills?
Robert
Moulton, AL
A: It depends. A credit card bill is a form of a contract. Occasionally we see married couples who have joint accounts where both are responsible for the total amount of the debt. In those cases, the survivor would be responsible for the remaining balance.
If it is just your credit card and no one else signed to be responsible for it then your family would not be responsible for payment.
However, if you leave an estate and an estate is opened so that property can be transferred or valued or any of the other reasons why an estate is opened, then the estate would be responsible for payment of the outstanding balance on the credit card.
Credit card companies almost always file claims against estates. Theoretically even if an estate wasn’t established by your heirs, a large creditor could file an estate so that they could then file a claim.
So the short answer is no your family is not responsible for the credit card bill but the correct answer is that if you leave an estate, the amount of the credit card debt would be paid from the estate.
Buckle up and drive safely.
McCutcheon & Hamner, P.C.
2210 Helton Drive
Florence, Alabama 35630
Telephone: 256-764-0112
Facsimile: 256-764-1124
