Ex-husbands Credit card debt

[Deleted User]

There are no joint cards.

My suspicion is this was taken out in your name

MalMonroe

Can't you just phone the credit card company and find out what is going on? That's the simplest way to unravel this mystery. If you are not the cardholder you shouldn't be responsible for any of this debt. Why is it taking six plus years to clear anyway?! That's a lot of money. I'd query the interest rate, you're just flushing your money down the toilet here.

jimbo26

The only logical explanation is that your ex obtained the card in your name. Even the most dodgy debt collecting agency wouldn't chase a debt in someone else's name

redux

MalMonroe wrote: »

Can't you just phone the credit card company and find out what is going on? That's the simplest way to unravel this mystery. If you are not the cardholder you shouldn't be responsible for any of this debt. Why is it taking six plus years to clear anyway?! That's a lot of money. I'd query the interest rate, you're just flushing your money down the toilet here.

And if they refuse to discuss it, it might be for data protection reasons (they might even say so), which would imply they've suddenly realised something ...

Ergates

jimbo26 wrote: »

The only logical explanation is that your ex obtained the card in your name. Even the most dodgy debt collecting agency wouldn't chase a debt in someone else's name

I wouldn't be too sure about that - there have been stories on these forums about debt collectors doing that very thing.

Terry_Towelling

If the card was taken out by your husband and you were just an additional cardholder than responsibility for the debt is his alone - end of.

We are all speculating that he used you as the main cardholder but you will only know for certain by talking with the card company. Chances are they won't talk to you because you are not the main cardholder - at least that proves that side of things.

Quite how the card company has sold a debt in someone else's name in your name, I don't know - I wonder whether your ex has told them something to get them off his tail. Possibly the debt collector is just chancing their arm and trying to get something back for the money they've forked out buying the debt.

If you benefitted from the spending on the cards then there may be a moral argument for you to contribute to paying something (which you have been) but there appears to be no legal obligation on you.

Tell the debt collector it's not your debt and that you were never party to the credit agreement. Then talk to the card company to find out how they sold the debt on. When you've done that, you might get a better idea how to move on.

18cc

I would concur with the above - start at the beginning - call the credit card company and find out exactly whose name the credit was taken out in. Without that certainty you can't know if you are responsible.

If the credit was taken out in your husband's name then he and only he is responsible. If your name, then you are.

Terry_Towelling

Just wondering whether there was anything in your divorce settlement about sharing of debts? Don't know whether that would make a difference but thought I'd ask anyway.

Callington

Thank you all for your responses.
The debt in question is quite sizeable about 20K over 2 cards.
There is no way that the cards could ever have been taken out in my name as I was a stay at home mum at the time and not earning so there is no way a credit card company would have offered me that kind of credit.

I totally agree that yes I am responsible in having to pay back some of the debt as I spent proportion of it, what I have a problem with is that mine and mine alone is the name that is now somehow linked to the debt (something that my ex kept hidden from me until I discovered differently just the other day).

[Deleted User]

Even as an additional card holder, the main account holder is responsible for the debt.

Send a prove-it letter to Captial One or the Collections Agency chasing the debt