Expert Q&A: Debt Collection After a Spouse's Death Credit Card Guide News
Please accept my condolences on your husband’s passing. That you are receiving scary collection calls so soon after losing him must be terrible.I doubt that you can be held responsible for his old credit card debt, but I can’t say with absolute certainty. Much depends on state law. In most cases, liabilities incurred before marriage (especially on a credit card that is not at all associated with you) would be pulled from his separate estate, but not from your combined or personal assets. However, if you live in a state that has community property laws on the books (Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin), complications might arise. To know for sure, contact a consumer rights attorney in your area.
If you discover that you do not have any obligation to pay — and I don’t think you do — it’s time to learn about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The collector may be violating this federal law, which prohibits debt collectors from using abusive, unfair or deceptive practices to collect money. Your state’s law may offer even further protection.
Debt Buyer / Debt Collector Lawsuits
Hudson Henley, a Texas and California Attorney, discusses debt buyer and debt collector lawsuit. Sued by debt buyer. He can be reached at (214 ...
Are these violations of fair debt collection practices act?
My husband fell 6 months behind on a credet card bill. The account was turned over to a collection agency in Texas.After repeated phone calls to both my husband and his employer. My husband called the CA and asked them to stop contacting third parties. He tried to make arrangements to pay the debt. He was not able to come up with the sum that they wanted so the calls continued. They called us numerous times. Sometimes 10 or more times in one hour. They continued to call his employer even when the employer asked them to stop calling. They called our neighbor, parents, and siblings. I contacted them and made arrangements to pay the bill in monthly enstallments. Two payments have been made as agreed. We have not missed a payment. Yesterday I was contacted by them stating that if I couldn't settle the debt that day they would send a 1099C form to the IRS. Claiming that my unpaid debt was considered nonwage income even though I was paying on it. they also called a third party this same da
We still are not sure how they got our neighbors address. We hardly ever even talk to him. I don't even know his last name. All that we can figure is that they looked up our address and then did a search on our neighbors address to get his contact information.
What really gets me is that they are continuing the harrassment even though we are paying on the debt. I could see if we had missed payments or something but we haven't.
The 1099 C form doesn't even apply to my debt. They were not offering to eliminate the debt. The lady who I spoke to on the phone tried telling me that if I didn't pay the debt that day she would file the form. When I spoke to the manager and asked him about the form he told me that it was used if part of the debt was written off and did not apply to a debt that I was paying. He is looking into the matter to find out why she would tell me this. It felt to me that she was just trying to bully me into paying it that day.
We have the payment details in writting and have made payments as agreed. We are sending a certified letter tommorow to stop contacting third parties as they are not doing so with any intentions of finding out contact information about us. They already have our information.
Turn them in to the better business bureau. Also tell them you will contact your attorney(you don't have to have one) if they don't stop calling your family and his employer. They legally can't contact the IRS about your debt, so don't worry about that. Make sure you tell the BBB about all of the threats that they have made, this is wrong and against the LAW! personally I would contact an attorney and sue them for harassment and breech in privacy if they are telling other people any info about how much you owe.
They can't contact you by phone, if you've asked them to stop-
Unpaid debt is NOT income!
From another site:
When the 1099-C is issued to you and to the IRS, you must claim the indicated amount as income in the year the debt was forgiven.
Once you pay the income tax on the forgiven amount, the creditor can not come after the same amount again. The debt is forgiven.
The taxes are surely less than the debt, pay it, and forget about it.
Did you have any of this in writting. That is did your husband send them a certified letter stating that they were not to communicate with anyone else. Did you have the payment arangements in writting? If not there is really no proof other than a you said/they said sort of thing.
However, having them give you a 1099-C may not be the worst thing that could happen. Once they do this they are officially writting off the debt and can not come after you again for it. You will have to pay taxes on the amount but depending on your tax situation this might be a very small percentage based on the settled amount.
texas fair debt collection practice act - News
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