spouse died credit card not registered to my address must I pay the bill

antrobus

bris wrote: »

Property is normally outside the estate and goes to the spouse so that should be safe, .. ...

No, any creditor can apply for an Insolvency Administration Order and effectively require the beneficiary to pay.

philipsaveer

rochja wrote: »

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/458014

From your previous posts it would appear that you have been the beneficiary of your husband's estate. Any money from that estate should have been used in the first instance to pay creditors. If there was not enough cash and shares etc to pay creditors the issue then becomes one of whether your husband had an interest in the house at the time of his death. If so then some of the comments in the thread I have referred you to become moot.

I only discoveered the card's existance after his death and nothing showing he had a second card is in the house. How could I have used money from the estate to pay for it if I did not even know of it's existence this has only just come to light recently.

All his other debts were settled shortly after his death this one has only taken this long because as far as I knew all the debts had been payed.

Mojisola

philipsaveer wrote: »

I only discoveered the card's existance after his death and nothing showing he had a second card is in the house. How could I have used money from the estate to pay for it if I did not even know of it's existence this has only just come to light recently.

This is why executors don't rush to finish an estate. It's best to leave a length of time so that unexpected debts have time to appear.

If you have notified the card provider of his death, that should stop anyone making use of it in the future. Any use after his death will be fraudulent and for the card provider to pursue.

philipsaveer

As the statements were going to her address so she must have the card and he actually died at her address (which is recorded on the death certificate) how can the estate be responsible for this debt when it was not registered at this address?

redpete

philipsaveer wrote: »

Does that mean I have to sell my house to pay the debt?

What happens to a house depends on how the ownership is arranged - tenants in common or joint tenants. There's useful info here about what happens to debts after someone dies.

redpete

philipsaveer wrote: »

how can the estate be responsible for this debt when it was not registered at this address?

Because it was registered to him, it was his debt, and it's his estate.The address is irrelevant.

jonesMUFCforever

The way it works is - everything he owned is tallied up on one side - first call is the funeral bill (interesting here who will pay but that is another debate) then every other bill owed is claimed against what is left.
If the estate has the funds to repay the credit card then the executors or administrator of his estate must pay it off before any sharing out.
If there is no money left over then the estate must tell the credit card lender this - in most cases it will be written off.
However if the deceased owed a property the lender could add a charge over it but IMO this would only happen if the debt is a substantial amount.