Well, I was snooping in my husbands room..again and found all these credit card bills. My lawyer wanted to see them so I took them in , he then told me I would have to call all of the companies. I called 2 major credit cards and they wanted me to fax them a letter stating I had POA and they would set up a payment plan. Should I do that? I am mad that I didn't even know about these cards in the first place, and in the second..none of them are even in my name. But again, I am worried that the companies may garnish my husbands bank account. What should I do..in deparated need of help!
Maryann, you need to ask the atty if you are responsible for the debt first--. if you live in a community state like me, you are responsible for debt accrued during marriage regardless who signs.they come after either or both of you to pay- if not, and atty says its his debt alone then i wouldnt worry about it unless they have options to make you pay somehow or if it affects your credit worthiness-. his credit will suffer from it, but with AD thats sometimes a plus. i did not take off a paid tax lein off DH credit hoping it would lower his scores and not make him a credit target. i would fax the cc company the POA and state you are demanding they close those acct and take him off lists for any further offers of credit. and get in touch with the banks asap and put them on alert just in case-. he may have issues there as well like overdrawn or unpaid checks. you wont know til you get a handle on all the accts. and be SURE to call experian the credit bureau and they will put a fraud alert on all 3 credit bureau's for his credit so if he or someone tries to open accts they will notify you-it can be done by phone and takes only 5min..it will be good for 90days and you will get a free report to look at it and see what credit is still open and where- it has all his financial info on it!! once you check that you will have a good idea where hes at- it seems you are making progress in finding things out at least-good luck, Divvi
Unless one of the cards is with the same bank where your husband has an account, I don't think you have to worry about garnishing. I believe that the account can't be garnished without the CC companies taking you to court. And unless the balance on the CC is sky-high, they won't do that. They WILL bully and threaten and harass, however. That's totally illegal, but they'll do it if you let them. So don't talk to them by phone any more. (Screen your calls until you get this settled, one way or another.)
Don't send anything in writing to any of the banks, until you've discussed the situation thoroughly with the lawyer. Divvi's suggestion sounds good, but I don't know whether that might give the banks some sort of leverage with you. Talk with the attorney first. And if he recommends writing to them, ask him for details of exactly what you should say, and what you should NOT say.
DO DO DO get copies of his and your credit reports from all three credit bureaus (not just Experian)!!! That way, you can find out if he's got any other debt you don't know about, and also see which banks are tracking you.
And you should put a fraud alert flag on his credit reports with all three, that's a good idea. That should stop the offers of credit without your contacting his creditors directly.
ps if you call experian they DO NOTIFY all the other bureaus for you ! i just did this for 2nd time. and you will get reports from all three after they put the fraud alert on acct. its a good thing! divvi