How is this possible?

[curse of exwife]

What is the name of your state? North Carolina

My husband's exwife filed bankruptcy in 2003. We just applied for a home loan to find that his credit has been ruined, we were unaware of her filing the bankruptcy until now. They were divorced in 1997 and she reopened a joint credit card account in 1999, ran it up and then filed bankruptcy. Our questions is - how is it that she was able to file bankruptcy on a joint account without him being notified? How do we fix it? We have contacted the credit card company and offered to pay it off - but they said we can't - HELP!

 

[Ladynred]

How can she do it ? Its simple, HER name was on the account and that means it was her debt too - and it was included in her BK as such. There is NO requirement that a joint account holder be notified of the bankrutpcy of the other. The only way he would have been notified is if she included him in her BK as a creditor - which she apparently did not.

If this was truly a joint account, then whoever the creditor or collection agency was that bought it can go after your husband for the debt. The creditor probably told you he can't pay them because the original creditor sold off the bad debt - they likely don't own it any more.

If he wants to pay it, he's going to have to find out who owns it and pay THAT entity. That won't get it off his credit report though, unless you negotiate for deletion when its paid off.