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credit card debt of deceased father (Illinois)

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bdeck

Guest
I posted a question on this matter in May, now the estate recovery company for Fleet credit card has sent a letter to my sister who lives in Illinois offering her a deal to pay 1/2 of the debt amount in order to settle this. My father passed away in January with no assets, meaning he did not own any real estate or own anything in his name, other than his bank account which was a joint account with my sister as well as 2 small CD's he held jointly with my sister. His bank account only had enough money in it account to cover his funeral expenses. He lived in Illinois with my sister at the time of his death. My husband had already talked with this estate recovery company and told them that there was no estate since he did not own any real estate or anything of value and that we were not able to pay off his credit card debt. Now they are sending my sister in Illinois this letter trying to get her to pay at 1/2 of the 5,200.00 debt within 30 days. It was my understanding that we are not liable to pay off his credit card debt so why is this estate recovery company sending my sister this letter? What do we do about this? Do the laws in Illinois require that we pay this credit card debt? Thanks in advance for any help again!
 


dmode101

Member
The big bad credit card co. is trying to intimidate you. I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that they try to extort money that they are not entitled to through scare tactics and supposed "settlement offers". They cannot personally go after relatives of a deceased debtor. The only possible way they could get joint account money is if they could prove that the account was set up with fraudulent intent to defeat creditors. I am sure this is not the case and it would be very difficult to prove anyway -- I highly doubt they would even try.

I suggest that you politely send them a letter saying that your attorney has advised you that you are not responsible for this debt, that you will not pay it, and that you wish them to cease all further communications with you regarding this matter(Do understand thought that I do not represent you and this is not "legal advice"). Understand thought that I can't gurantee that they won't see you, I just don't think that they have any basis for a claim.

I have a question: Did they actually say anywhere in the letter that they are legally entitled to recover this from you and that they would consider pursuing this in court?

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Jeffrey R. Gottlieb, Attorney at Law
http://www.illinoisestateplan.com
This response is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.
 
B

bdeck

Guest
Thank you for your advise and for responding so quickly. They did not state that they legally entitle to recover this debt from us, they said it was an attempt to settle this account. Nothing was said about pursuing it in court. As of today, my husband again called this estate recovery company and again told them that there was no estate and that no one in the family was able to pay off his debt. The woman he talked to said thank you and that was all they were wanting to know and that we would not have any further correspondence from this estate recovery company. I hope this is true because my husband had already told them the same thing when he first called them in May after they sent me a letter. Thank you again for your help.
 

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