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Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 7:29 pm Subject: Authorized User

Hello all:

I have a few questions. The story behind this is that I have a close family member that was recently separated due to secret financial problems. Long story short she found that they had a huge amount of debt not none to her after 30+ years of marriage. The divorce decree (they are in NY so all assets were divided 50/50) gave her a few credit card debts and the rest to her ex husband, who had much more in assets so he got most of the credit card debt. She ended up with about $30K in CC debt and has paid off all the balances in full. He ended up with much more in CC debt (>100K) and has not payed a penny and defaulted on all of them. My question is:

1) Her credit report is riddled by all the accounts that he ended up with, since she was an authorized user on all the accounts. Since the court divided their assets up and declared that that debt to be owned by him, can she now dispute these negative accounts and have them removed from her credit report? Keep in mind that they are not officially divorced and will not be for two more years, but the separation agreement has been signed by all parties and approved.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:10 pm Subject:

I am not sure on this, but I think that she should dispute it with the CRA's because it is listed in the divorce decree. If she has written proof of this. Also I was listed as an authorized user on some of my dads CC and I disputed them with the CRA's and said they were not mine and all 3 took them off my CR.

But if you hang on someone else with more knowledge will be along shortly to answer this better.

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:20 pm Subject:

That is kind of what I was thinking. I am not 100% sure what being an authorized user actually means. Are you also responsible for the debt? That sounds more like a cosignor to me. All the same she has all the necessary paperwork etc that is signed by all sorts of lawyers and parties. It is good to know that you were able to remove them from your CR, hopefully she can do the same. Other than these huge CC's defaulted, that don't legally belong to her, she has no negative items. All the other credit cards were paid off in full to the original creditor.

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:40 pm Subject:

Being an authorized user means that she can also use the card but the account holder is responsibe for anything the auth. user charges. But could it be that it could be a joint account holder? That can be different.
They will report both the auth. user and the joint account holder on the credit report. My dad filed for BK and thats when they started reporting it on my CR. I was upset about that. But as long as she has the paperwork then it should be ok. Also was that paperwork sent to the CC company to take her name off and stop reporting it on her CR? If not then I would do that asap. SHe could talk to one of the lawyers handling this and tell them that it is being reported on her CR. They may be able to send a letter and the paperwork for her. Have her check into that.

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:45 pm Subject:

I will speak to her tomorrow. I did tell her that she should ask her lawyer about it. Her banker is involved in this as well because she was the one who dealt with the cards that she paid off. She said that they would look over her next CR and see what is on there still.

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:47 pm Subject:

Thats great to hear. I hope for her that she can get that taken care of without to much hassel.

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:30 pm Subject:

My sister could not qualify for an auto loan because she was listed as an authorized user on her ex-husband's credit card. Her ex stopped making the card payments and she suffered the consequences. Being an authorized user certainly mean that you are not legally obligated to pay off the debts. However any negative info reported on the account holders report will be reflected on the authorized users account too.

Guest · Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 5:23 am Subject:

It sounds like the above poster was able to dispute these items and have them removed, Did your sister attempt to do that?

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:31 am Subject:

A authorized user has no obligation to pay for any account as they are only a user. Dispute with the creditor and the bureaus as not being responsible for this account.Demand removal from your reports.

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 3:24 pm Subject:

Update on this topic:

The divorce is finalized, she paid off the three balances that she got, now we are going to dispute all these accounts and her credit should be back in decent shape. I will update once I know the outcome! Thanks for all the help from everyone!

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