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credit card debt for an 80 year old widow

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ppj0920

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? nc my 80 year old mom, who has been widowed for 40 years, has run up over 12,000 dollars in credit card debt....she actually owns nothing for this happened about 10 years ago and we had to sell her home to pay off the debt (40,000 then) she doesn't own a car either....the only income she has is social security...can the credit card companies touch that? i have moved her in with my husband and me and will be in complete charge of her finances. i just wondered if the credit cards could start taking money from her checking account. thank you.
 


IAAL-13

Junior Member
ppj0920 said:
What is the name of your state? nc my 80 year old mom, who has been widowed for 40 years, has run up over 12,000 dollars in credit card debt....she actually owns nothing for this happened about 10 years ago and we had to sell her home to pay off the debt (40,000 then) she doesn't own a car either....the only income she has is social security...can the credit card companies touch that? i have moved her in with my husband and me and will be in complete charge of her finances. i just wondered if the credit cards could start taking money from her checking account. thank you.

My response:

Take her to see a Bankruptcy attorney. File.

IAAL
 
J

jcardozo

Guest
assuming she really doesn't have any $, and the only $ in the checking account is her social security, then it cannot be collected against.

Don't pay. Personally I wouldn't bother with a BK at cost of several hundred dollars, but that's up to you.
 

Who's Liable?

Senior Member
There is NO reason to file Bk.

Not to sound callous, but your mother is getting to the age where credit doesn't really matter anymore. Do you expect her to buy a house, or a new car within the next 5-7 years?

CC companies cannot garnish Social Security, BUT they can freeze and take money from an account that already exists. If your moms SS is auto deposit, they will seize the account than it would be up to YOU to prove that the money in the account was indeed from SS. CC companies are VERY reluctant to release ANY funds they have siezed...

My suggestion would be to get SS checks mailed to her and than deposited into an account under your name.

You will need to do some further research...
 
J

jcardozo

Guest
Yeah, having the checks deposited into a different account might be a good prophylactic move, but even that seems unnecessary until there is a judgment against her...
 
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Who's Liable?

Senior Member
jcardozo said:
Yeah, having the checks deposited into a different account might be a good prophylactic move, but even that seems unnecessary until there is a judgment against her...
why wait for it to happen, and it WILL happen. Than the OP goes through the hassle of trying to retrieve the SS funds. It won't require just a phone call. It's a long drawn out process to recover the funds.
 

Ladynred

Senior Member
It may NOT happen at all ! The OP states these debts went bad 10 years ago ! If that is the case, then the SOL has LONG ago run out - a mere 3 years in NC - and if there are any attempts to sue her then the expired SOL would be her defense against any such lawsuit. Any collection attempts can be deflected with a cease and desist letter telling the collection agency to get lost, the debt is time-barred.

As for her SS, you might want to look into the arrangement with the SSA where you are basically the Trustee for your mother's SS money (can't remember what they call it at the moment). However, I disagree with stopping the automatic deposit. If there IS auto-deposit it is very easy to prove that the source of the funds are, indeed, exempt from siezure. However, if you cash a check, it's harder to show where the funds came from and once it's mere cash, it's fair game.
 

BlondiePB

Senior Member
Ladynred said:
As for her SS, you might want to look into the arrangement with the SSA where you are basically the Trustee for your mother's SS money (can't remember what they call it at the moment).
Refresher...it's called Representative Payee. Don't you just hate that mental pause?

SSA will send papers to the physician of SS beneficiary. SS wants a really good medical reason from the beneficiary's doctor of why the beneficiary cannot handle his/her own money to appoint a Representative Payee.
 

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