How do I notify credit cards that there is no estate money to pay them now that my parents have passed?

I had a very similar situation when my dad died. He also had a couple of outstanding credit card balances. I called his creditors to inform them that my dad had died and that there was no estate. One of them simply said that they would notate the account and I never heard from them again and the other requested a copy of the death certificate which I sent. I never heard from them after that either.

As long as your name is not on any of your mom's credit card accounts you shouldn't have any problem.

Do as Eyerishlass did. If any of the credit cards are with Bank of America or Capital One, send a certified or registered letter notifying them of your mother's death. Those two card issuers are more difficult to deal with, so document all your actions if your mother had cards from them.

Advise them she is deceased and that there are no funds for payment on her debt. Don't mention anything about yourself or they'll come after you and harass you - I know of people who've had real problems with these two outfits.

Have you also notified the credit reporting bureaus of her death? I did this after both my mother and sister died not only for update purposes but so that any attempts to obtain credit in their names could be immediately identified as fraudulent.

Pay the bills that are necessary to maintain her house until you sell or otherwise dispose of it. Be aware that you may have some difficulty with the insurance agent and carrier if you're not living in your mother's house - underwriters aren't fond of insuring vacant homes.

Credit cards are unsecured debt. A person who is deceased cannot pay this kind of debt and I would send a copy of the death certificate to all of them. If you were acting as her attorney-in-fact and feel you deserve compensation, then pay yourself and notify the other creditors of her death and see how they respond. Just in case, don't give your private information to them. I am sorry for your loss, and know your mother is in a better place.

That is true, unless your name was on the card, you are not responsible. Just call them and tell them your mom has passed. Sorry you lost your mother.

Don't skip this. If you were acting as her attorney-in-fact and feel you deserve compensation, then pay yourself

Sorry to hear of your loss. The advice above about contacting creditors is correct. However, I would respectfully disagree with the suggestions about paying yourself. Once a person dies, the power of attorney is invalid and gives no authority at all. In many states, the payment for those services is not permitted unless documented in writing before death. All states have a strict order of payment of creditors and costs of estate administration. If someone pays money out of order, that person can become personally liable, even if they were not otherwise. For example, it is often assumed that the funeral bill has first priority, when that's not generally true (at least not to an unlimited amount).

Do not forget to notify the three credit bureaus so no one can use her info for fraudulent activity.

Well, I think most of the comments are true. There might be one exception. If your mother gave you the authority to sign or had a card issued to you with your name on it, there could be a possibility they could come after you for that. I think that is why people have a different number on their card than the cards they hand out to use. But, that number is also a good way of keeping account accurate between several users in a business. Yes, B of A can be horrible. I lost my husband income immediately upon his death. Therefore, my income was cut more than 1/2. As a result, i was trying to work with B of A to keep my home. They were vicious. I lost my home. BUT, B of A must have done something wrong. There were Federal audits done on many people's account who lost their home to B of A. One day I got some mail that I thought was junk mail, or another letter from B of A. It sat on my dining room table for about two weeks. I went to open it one day just to see what the next harrasment was going to be. In the two envelopes, were one check each They totaled $12,000.00 dollars. Evidently, B of A had done something wrong to me. It was too late, my house was gone, but I sure was happy they had to pay me. A lot of people lost homes that should not have. My husband was disabled military. I think the B of A screwed up.

When my FIL died, with many outstanding debts, my husband, who was his executor, paid EVERYBODY. Including, but not limited to a dentist who KNEW dad had passed, but still made the dentures dad had ordered just prior to his death. $1200. My hubby felt obligated to clear all debts. Also, as executor, he was allowed to charge $25 per hour for the time he spent on the estate. (My son is a lawyer and checked all this out for us, for our state). I completely renovated dad's condo so it could sell quickly (and it was in bad shape)..I also was entitled to the $25 per hour for my time. Just to remain on good terms with the sibs, we did not charge the estate anything. In the end, we were "shorted" thousands and thousands of dollars, but for my hubby, being on good terms with family was more important. I know that my hubby did get about 15 death certificates and sent those along with final payments to CC companies, etc. It was a learning curve, for sure. We won't leave our kids like dad left us--floundering for answers and direction.

BillKratt--each state has different laws about the executor being paid. Where we live, it's a flat hour amount. If it were a lawyer doing it, you'd better believe they'd be charging every second. Just because my hubby didn't take advantage of it--doesn't mean that's right for everyone. He spent countless hours on cleaning up dad's affairs. The other kids just held out their hands for checks. (Yeah, I am a tad bitter about THAT.)

Be very careful about giving out private info. There are crooks out there that run collection agencies that don't practice a very nice way. I can personally tell you, years ago, I was pregnant and had one child already. I went to the Collection Companies office as they had threatened to call my husband boss. Well, they got me in a room and shut the door. The rest is history. The Govt came after that company and we never heard from them again. But, they will harass you if they get your tele number etc.

I don't know the answer, but wish to offer condolences. You are brave to deal with all this while grieving!

After my mother died we were left with the house. Insurance company insured it for 3 years. Going from agent to agent to try and get insurance on an unoccupied house was fruitless. We were without insurance for 4 years. Finally got a kind and helpful agent that told us to go thru a broker and immediately had two companies want to sell us insurance. The other agents we tried just said no they didn't know how or who would insure house (including the agent that I have for my own home). I hate having to bug everyone for answers on how to get the information I need. Why do they make it so hard? I would like to say the name of the company (large, well known company and their kind and helpful agent but who knows he would probably get in trouble for giving out information that would help someone!

I worked as a collector for a company not a collection agency. They r ruthless but r under stricter regulations than I was. They are NOT allowed to call it employer. If u tell them payment will be made by a certain date, they can't call u till that date. For Your rights look up....

FTC's Fair Dept Collection Practices Act of 1977

I have never done probate. Under the impression that u go to your local probate office to establish executor. Then all debtors are contacted to establish amounts owed. An ad is also put in the paper. If no money debtors take a loss. A child is not responsible for a parents debts.

never heard of funeral home not taking priority - but have run into he house insurance issue but was told his state has a high risk pool like car insurance for situations like that

Consult an ATTORNEY for legal issues. Laws vary from state to state, circumstances are different, etc. I would not follow the advice in any of these anecdotes, but would use them to start understanding processes. Be careful or you may end up on the wrong end of an investigation or worse.

I agree. You will need to prove to all the creditors that there is no money. I would think they will need to see a financial statement besides a death certificate. They aren't going to take ur word for it.

how is there no equity in her home; did she still have a mortgage?

So simple: short form death certificate to each creditor (without cause of death) . Basic form letter, same for each, sent with copy of their statement, for proper accounting. If certified mail is costly, just
Make a file copy of each letter and get a certificate of mailing for each when you mail from the post office.
I helped my uncle resolve $30,000 worth of debt in my aunts name only- she didn't tell him about the numerous cards she had opened to keep the derelict cousins afloat . Took two weeks. Problems solved.

Many good answers here!
Also remember:

IF there is Estate Value, credit card and other debt may be seen as "Income", and IRS wants paid. The debtor got money to spend which was otherwise not taxed as income at the time. If that debt is not paid, IRS might demand payment of taxes on that income, to finish cleaning up an elder's tax records.

IF elders die without any assets to pay debts, it's necessary to send a return-receipt-requested letter, and possibly a copy of the death certificate, to the company[s] the person owed money to, so they can close out the accounts. They will write it off as a loss.
Some companies WILL try to pursue family members to pay bills left by deceased persons. You can tell them clearly: "Stop harassing us; the person you seek died with zero assets; close your files on that, because there is no more responsible party left to pay it". They might also require a death certificate and letter.

Unless you are named as a part-owner/user of billing statements, credit cards or contracts, you do NOT have to pay the bills owing for someone who died with zero assets [though some States will try, and might succeed, at getting family to repay State money spent on impoverished individuals].

It's very important about notifying the 3 credit reporting agencies: they should freeze the person's credit ratings and reports, to prevent fraudulent use of that data.

Chimonger, very good point. I was curious about this issue and how much of forgiven debt might be taxable, so I did some research. Paragraph #3 addresses this issue very concisely.

creditcards/credit-card-news/six-exceptions-paying-tax-forgiven-debt-1282.php

To follow up on Chimonger's post here: once the funeral director submits SS info to the state for a DC (death certificate) all accounts are frozen. Sometimes a spouse with a joint account finds the entire joint acct. also frozen, it's because the decedents SS number auto tripped the account block. Happens frequently.

Cleverdish, are you referring to" all accounts" as including checking accounts? This didn't happen when my sister died. I could write checks on her accounts as they were held jointly, but I did quickly open a trust account to transfer the funds

I wasn't aware of accounts being frozen. Interesting that you commented on info being sent to the state - I just received a query from the Secretary of State's office to the effect that it had been noted that my sister hadn't voted in years and addressing updated info so that she could vote. Apparently they never got the message.

Garden Artist,
Indeed, some agencies do not know what they are doing...they harvest data from all kinds of sources; unfortunately, they fail to grasp that someone has died, sometimes, even if they get a DC copy sent them!
When Mom's 3rd died, we kept getting letters soliciting donations, from the County's Boy Scouts organization. THAT took over 3 years to stop. Turned out they buy contact lists from County Records--indiscriminate of what lists those come from.
With all the email, calls and letters I sent the Boy Scouts, it MIGHT have caused them to re-think where they harvest contact data from!
[[with malicious sarcasm: 'Bless Facebook'...they are the world's #1 source of personal data that gets sold to industries and governments world-wide...]]

Chimonger, you're a kindred spirit when it comes to recognizing that Facebook is a massive data collector which it uses for revenue. There was an interesting article in Time magazine a few years ago on the role the social media as well as search engines play in providing data to the US federal government.

In terms of data harvest and sale, the Secretary of State in Michigan also provides voter registration data to the political parties.

I contacted them last year when I became furious after receiving a political solicitation postcard that shared the information on which of my neighbors voted in the last election. I was livid. An SOS representative was somewhat apologetic that this takes place, but it still does.

As others have stated, it is an unsecured debt. If you or some other person was not tied to the account, such as a co-signer, then the debt was that of the deceased. I know some credit card companies have a specific area for this type of situation. Call the credit card company involved and tell them you are calling on behalf of a deceased card holder. They may handle the call directly or transfer you to another area. They can let you know their procedure. Some will just close the account, some may ask for a death certificate. Especially if there is nothing left in the estate it shouldn't take much to get things resolved. Best of luck and condolences to you. I have been through this and losing my mom (and best friend) was the biggest loss I've ever felt. Just a footnote, if things get too crazy, you might search for an attorney who is very reasonable and can help you out in paying bills, or for that matter, what bills need to be paid. Take care.

One thing to add to the after death maze is MERP - medicaid estate recovery. If your family member received any benefits that was paid by Medicaid & was over 55, expect to get an initial "Intent to file a Lien (or Claim)" letter from MERP. Sometimes it is called MERS. MERP is not limited to recovery for NH costs but any services - like at home or community based services - that was paid for through Medicaid funding.

All states are required to do MERP. More & more states are turning this over to outside contractors -HMS & PCG are the 2 big ones - who get a % of the recovery plus fees. It seems to be a debt collectors approach to the process and very short frame time line driven. If you or other family get a MERP letter it should not be ignored.

I'd like to add Discover to the BOA & Capitol One list of aggressive collectors.

Also you should do a final IRS filing. Can get sticky & could need to be amended if they died with CC debt. CC can issue a 1099-C cancellation of debt for whatever debt, interest & fees written off. 1099-C is taxable income.

like 60 days, or at least that's what a debt collector told us yesterday and we're in the middle of still working out a wreck situation

Send a legal death notice and they will have to eat the bill if. You didn't co sign the bill ended on her death you don't haveto pay a dime if they write after that save the letters and tell them you are sduring them for harrisment they will stop