'Credit Card Debts Aren't Inherited'

Michelle Singletary, in her "The Color of Money" column in the December 29 Washington Post Business section, answered a question from a reader who wondered whether your credit card debt is passed on in the event of your death.

Long story short: no.

Which completely surprised me.

I'd always thought that your debts, no matter how incurred, had to be paid off if it was at all possible.

Not so, turns out.

Here's the Washington Post piece.

Credit Card Debts Aren't Inherited

A Maryland woman wanted to know if a single woman (a mother) dies while she still has a significant amount of unsecured credit card debt, what happens to that debt.

She has no assets, and her two children will inherit nothing.

I suspect that what the reader really wanted to know is whether the children will inherit her credit card debt.

The answer is no, unless the children are 18 or older and co-signed for the debt.

In that case, they would be responsible.

However, if they are minors and no assets are available to sell or disburse to creditors, the children can't be held responsible for any of their mother's debts.

That also goes for the woman's other relatives.

You are not responsible for paying off someone else's debts when the person dies unless you have agreed to be a co-signer for the credit.

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Now, I'm no lawyer but neither is Michelle Singletary.

After I reread her piece what I took away from it was that if you happen to have an estate with significant assets, a credit card company can indeed swoop in and take the total balance due even if you had no co–signer.

Because in that case they'd be pulling the funds out of the estate as a whole, not extracting them from an individual.

Now, I know that there are lawyers reading this: I've had email correspondence with at least four or five, and using my rule of a hundred (when one person does something that requires any effort, be sure that a hundred more would do it but can't be bothered; I usually apply this reasoning to complaints but I suspect it has much wider application), there must be a lot more silent legal eagles out there.

So, counselors — what gives?

Will someone who knows the law be so kind as to fill me in, either by commenting or emailing me direct?

No, I have no plans to crump anytime soon but I find the idea of debt forgiveness of any sort in the American system somewhat surprising.