Death of a spouse -- kills AU-based credit history?

Question

Hello everyone.  I have tried doing a lot of google searches on the credit scoring implications of the death of a spouse.  They seem exculsively interested in whether the survivor is liable for the debts of the deceased. My question is different.  In the case of my aging parents, my father has traditionally handled money issues: loans, mortgages, paying utility bills and credit cards, etc.  He's been doing this for probably at least 20 years, maybe 30. My mother probably has four credit cards, maybe five.  But it recently occured to me that it is possible that the actual accounts are in my father's name, and she is actually just an Authorized User -- perhaps on one, two, or all five. If that is so then I am guessing that, if my father were to die first, then for every account of his on which she is only an AU, this account would vanish from her report fairly soon after his death.  Is that true?  Or would the account stay on her report but as a closed account?  (Thus giving her the benefit of its age for another ten years.) My concern of course is for her not to go in an instant from 20+ years of credit history to no history whatsoever.  Does anyone know how an AU account is handled upon the death of the account's owner? My guess is that this is easily solvable by my father putting at least a couple of the older cards in both their names: joint accounts rather than her as an AU.

Answer 1

CreditGuyInDixie wrote:
Hello everyone.  I have tried doing a lot of google searches on the credit scoring implications of the death of a spouse.  They seem exculsively interested in whether the survivor is liable for the debts of the deceased. My question is different.  In the case of my aging parents, my father has traditionally handled money issues: loans, mortgages, paying utility bills and credit cards, etc.  He's been doing this for probably at least 20 years, maybe 30. My mother probably has four credit cards, maybe five.  But it recently occured to me that it is possible that the actual accounts are in my father's name, and she is actually just an Authorized User -- perhaps on one, two, or all five. If that is so then I am guessing that, if my father were to die first, then for every account of his on which she is only an AU, this account would vanish from her report fairly soon after his death.  Is that true?  Or would the account stay on her report but as a closed account?  (Thus giving her the benefit of its age for another ten years.) My concern of course is for her not to go in an instant from 20+ years of credit history to no history whatsoever.  Does anyone know how an AU account is handled upon the death of the account's owner? My guess is that this is easily solvable by my father putting at least a couple of the older cards in both their names: joint accounts rather than her as an AU.The cards would report as closed on your fathers reports though I'm not sure of the notation.  They wouldn't just disappear and would still remain on your mothers account unless she requested to have them removed.    regarding your last sentence, there aren't many cc companies that have provisions for joint account holders so most likely that isn't even an option.  Another option is to have your mom open a few cards in her name .