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Absentee husband

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privetv7

Junior Member
From Illinois:
My sister's husband left the country and is not coming back. He left her with a lot of credit card debt, mortgage on the house that barely has any equity and that she alone cannot afford. How can she protect herself and her kids financially while she is trying to file for a divorce from her absentee husband? All property is in both their names, so until divorce is finalized, she can't even sell the house or refinance it. What can she do? What if he continues to use his credit cards overseas? How can she protect herself from that potential additional debt?

Thanks
 
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privetv7

Junior Member
add'l info

... in this case, it's not that we don't know where he is, but that he is overseas, back in the country he is from and where he still has relatives; we can locate him, but US laws are certainly not enforceable there and financial help from him would be zero, as I believe incomes on average there are $100/month, if not per year
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
As for the credit cards, if they are both on the card, lower the credit limit so that he can't continue to run them up.
Even better, cancel completely any credit card that is joint. The ones in his name only, are his problem.
 

penelope10

Senior Member
Just wanted to add, as an alternative, OP can also request that her name be removed off of existing accounts. She can then open new accounts (if she needs the lines of credit ) in her name only with the CC companies. (Granted they may not allow her to open her own accounts if the current cards don't have a good payment history, or the debt on the current cards are indeed massive. In such a scenario closing the accounts all together would be the route to go).

After such, she can put a fraud alert on her credit bureaus.

There is a definite advantage to closing the accounts all together. However, if the stbx is making any payments to the CC company (guessing that he's not, but like I said that's guessing on my part) the court might have a dim view of Op's sister attempting to stop him from using the existing lines of credit. It would be understandable, however, that she would wish to have her name removed from the accounts, even if he is making payments. As it would be understandable in the scenario that no payments were being made, that OP's sis closed the accounts to avoid additional debt being added.
 
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LdiJ

Senior Member
Just wanted to add, upon filing for divorce, OP can also request that her name be removed off of existing accounts. She can then open new accounts (if she needs the lines of credit ) in her name only with the CC companies. (Granted they may not allow this if the current cards don't have a good payment history).

After such, she can put a fraud alert on her credit bureaus.

There is a definite advantage to closing the accounts all together. However, if the stbx is making any payments to the CC company (guessing that he's not, but like I said that's guessing on my part) the court might have a dim view of Op's sister attempting to stop him from using the existing lines of credit. It would be understandable, however, that she would wish to have her name removed from the accounts, even if he is making payments.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that if the account has a balance, the credit card company will NOT remove someone's name from the account. The only choice is cancelling the account.

It is standard in a divorce proceeding to cancel joint accounts...therefore a judge isn't going to ding her for this. Now, if she filed for divorce while her husband was simply away visiting his family, and cancelled his credit cards so he had no means to come back, THAT might make a judge view the situation dimly.
 

penelope10

Senior Member
I can tell you with absolute certainty that if the account has a balance, the credit card company will NOT remove someone's name from the account. The only choice is cancelling the account.

It is standard in a divorce proceeding to cancel joint accounts...therefore a judge isn't going to ding her for this. Now, if she filed for divorce while her husband was simply away visiting his family, and cancelled his credit cards so he had no means to come back, THAT might make a judge view the situation dimly.
Well in some instances a CC will allow this even if there is a balance. Granted it's very, very rare.(I'm speaking from experience) The route that you suggested is the best route in my opinion. However, investigating the possibility with the credit card companies before canceling the cards may be of some benefit to the Op's sister. That way she has some line of credit to fall back on should she end up needing it rather than none.
 

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