Re: Deceased parent being pursued by collection agency?

Posted by Why Chat (209.240.205.61) on February 03, 2004 at 15:27:15:

In Reply to: Re: Deceased parent being pursued by collection agency? posted by anon on February 02, 2004 at 18:41:15:

Opt out prevents collection agencies from obtaining new data from your records:

1-888-567-8688)  The Big 3 Credit Bureaus now use the same telephone number-- (1-888-567-8688) or 1-888-5-OPTOUT. If you call one, you are opting-out with all 3.

Have her call, or you call for her, from a phone that is NOT listed to her or any family member.

If she is having her mail forwarded, then it would be a good idea to NOT give her new address when getting any credit reports. You can get them on line.

As to her responsibilty-- if she did not sign the applications, she would not normaly be LEGALLY responsible for the charges. However, her continued charges after her husband's death could be considered to be sufficient to uphold any claims against her.

It is very difficult to tell you what to do as this involves not only legal, but moral and ethical questions as well.

In a perfect world. you could contact the collection agencies, expain the situation, and negotiate a settlement, however the system is far from perfect, and doing the "right thing" would likely have horrible consequences for both your mother, and for you.

I suggest you and she contact no one, do not let the collection agencies know of your father's death, your mother's new address.nor your assistance to her.

Mae sure your mother has NO credit cards, and does not open any new credit accounts of ANY kind. This includes telephone or cable service in her own name.

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