Joint Credit cards - need advice

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Jersey
I have been divorced from my wife for 7 years and I recently discovered that she started using 2 credit cards that we had jointly with me as the primary card holder. I do not even know the account mubers for these cards. I had forgotten about these cards completely. She has run them up to the maximum amounts and is arrears in payments which has severely affected my credit rating. It dropped almost 100 points over the past six months. I spoke with her to pay them off and close the accounts but she will not comply with my requests. Can I take her to court to pay these cards off and close the accounts? She has the means to pay them off in full. ANy advice will be helpful.

ledzephar said:

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Jersey
I have been divorced from my wife for 7 years and I recently discovered that she started using 2 credit cards that we had jointly with me as the primary card holder. I do not even know the account mubers for these cards. I had forgotten about these cards completely. She has run them up to the maximum amounts and is arrears in payments which has severely affected my credit rating. It dropped almost 100 points over the past six months. I spoke with her to pay them off and close the accounts but she will not comply with my requests. Can I take her to court to pay these cards off and close the accounts? She has the means to pay them off in full. ANy advice will be helpful.

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If you have been divorced for 7 years how do you know she has the wherewithall to pay these cards of in full?

ledzephar said:

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Jersey
I have been divorced from my wife for 7 years and I recently discovered that she started using 2 credit cards that we had jointly with me as the primary card holder. I do not even know the account mubers for these cards. I had forgotten about these cards completely. She has run them up to the maximum amounts and is arrears in payments which has severely affected my credit rating. It dropped almost 100 points over the past six months. I spoke with her to pay them off and close the accounts but she will not comply with my requests. Can I take her to court to pay these cards off and close the accounts? She has the means to pay them off in full. ANy advice will be helpful.

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YOU can close the accounts.
You can also sue her for the amounts she charged.

Zigner said:

YOU can close the accounts.
You can also sue her for the amounts she charged.

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He would have to pay the cards off first and then sue. At this point all she's done is use her own accounts.

It is his problem that he did not remove himself or close those accounts years ago.

Antigone*of*Greece said:

He would have to pay the cards off first and then sue. At this point all she's done is use her own accounts.

It is his problem that he did not remove himself or close those accounts years ago.

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True enough...

Antigone*of*Greece said:

He would have to pay the cards off first and then sue. At this point all she's done is use her own accounts.

It is his problem that he did not remove himself or close those accounts years ago.

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True.

He has another option. Probably not as attractive, but possible, depending on the wording of the decree.

If the decree has anything about use of joint accounts, (often this will be in the default orders that are issued at the time of filing), it is possible that she might be in contempt and OP could file for contempt to get an order for her to pay. Two problems with this (if the orders allow him to do this at all):

1. It would take months - during which time his credit rating would continue to deteriorate.
2. She may not have the money to pay the credit cards in which case he'd win the contempt order but still wouldn't get the cards paid off.


Finally, there's a third option - that he should exercise IMMEDIATELY even if he can't afford to pay off the full amount. Contact the credit card company and have the cards frozen so that no new charges can be made. That will prevent her from using the cards if he can only pay a little bit per month.

One last thing to consider. Contact the credit card company. If it has been 7 years, the old cards would have expired and had to be renewed. I think it would require some affirmative action in order to renew-in which case she may have run afoul of identity theft statutes.

mistoffolees said:

True.

He has another option. Probably not as attractive, but possible, depending on the wording of the decree.

If the decree has anything about use of joint accounts, (often this will be in the default orders that are issued at the time of filing), it is possible that she might be in contempt and OP could file for contempt to get an order for her to pay. Two problems with this (if the orders allow him to do this at all):

1. It would take months - during which time his credit rating would continue to deteriorate.
2. She may not have the money to pay the credit cards in which case he'd win the contempt order but still wouldn't get the cards paid off.

Finally, there's a third option - that he should exercise IMMEDIATELY even if he can't afford to pay off the full amount. Contact the credit card company and have the cards frozen so that no new charges can be made. That will prevent her from using the cards if he can only pay a little bit per month.

One last thing to consider. Contact the credit card company. If it has been 7 years, the old cards would have expired and had to be renewed. I think it would require some affirmative action in order to renew-in which case she may have run afoul of identity theft statutes.

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When my credit cards expire I just get new ones in the mail. The only thing I have to do is activate them. Since she is a joint cardholder I don't see how that could be considered to be identity theft.

Also, someone else said that he would have to pay them off to cancel them, and from my experience that isn't true. The accounts can be cancelled and then payments continue to be made until they are paid off. Its along the lines of freezing the accounts, but she couldn't call in and unfreeze them.

LdiJ said:

When my credit cards expire I just get new ones in the mail. The only thing I have to do is activate them. Since she is a joint cardholder I don't see how that could be considered to be identity theft.

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Depends. There is a primary cardholder and additional cardholders. if OP is the primary cardholder and his ex activated the card, she may be in violation of the terms on the card - and even identity theft.

As I said, I don't know, nor do I know the specifics of their card (obviously), but it's one more thing to look into.

mistoffolees said:

Depends. There is a primary cardholder and additional cardholders. if OP is the primary cardholder and his ex activated the card, she may be in violation of the terms on the card - and even identity theft.

As I said, I don't know, nor do I know the specifics of their card (obviously), but it's one more thing to look into.

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Not all credit cards have a primary card holder. Many are truly "joint". However, even if he was the primary card holder and she was just an authorized user, I don't see how identify theft could play out. He authorized her to use the card and never rescinded that authorization.

Lesson for future parties reading this thread....make sure that when you get divorced, that all joint credit cards are cancelled, and if possible, paid off before assets are divided.