What happens with bill collectors come after death?

[Anonymous]

I am dealing with my mother’s recent passing and she had multiple outstanding debts — credit cards, car, IRS, and other debt collectors I don’t recognize.

Do I owe these folks anything? Should I be following up with each to notify them? I am receiving mail from companies inquiring about her estate. I frankly am hesitant to start communications with debt collectors as there is no estate. She had some mental illness and unfortunately not good with money. Thanks

[Anonymous]

Nope. Tell them she died and there is no money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope. Tell them she died and there is no money.

In writing? Or should I call them? The letters provided a phone number, but I am hesitant to do so.

[Anonymous]

don't call them. Send a cease and desist letter, she has died without any money and they need to stop contacting you. if you call, they'll have your number and hound you relentlessly.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they may try to pressure you to pay up but it's not your debt so you don't owe anything.

If she really died without money, they will go away faster. They can use all the credit check info to determine if she owned property based on her address. They can also see things like what institutions she had credit cards with. If no property and a bunch of cards, it's not worth it to them to keep following up.

[Anonymous]

Also...they may be able to find you and your phone number if your parent ever co-signed for student loans (going back to the late 1980s).

If your parent's SSN was ever linked to yours where the credit reporting industry got ahold of it, you are still linked to them in data banks regardless of where you live now. Just be aware in case you get calls anyway (harder for them to find your cell than a landline but not impossible).

[Anonymous]

When my brother died we returned mail from creditors unopened with DECEASED written on the envelope. If they called we told them he was dead and there was no money. Some of them wanted us to send a death certificate but we mostly didn't. They all eventually gave up.

[Anonymous]

Thank you everyone. This gives me confidence. I don’t want to send the death certificate either. What a nuisance!

[Anonymous]

They will have legitimate claims to the estate but the burden is on them to track it down. At some point her estate's executor may need to post a notice and they have to find it (e.g. newspaper notice). In one of my relative's cases, despite owing some debts, the companies never filed claims and so the estate was closed without payment to those debts.

[Anonymous]

You should look up what the laws are in your mother's state -- just google "do debts survive my death in [state]". The rules do differ and there's no one size fits all, so to avoid unpleasant surprises it's worth a little digging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They will have legitimate claims to the estate but the burden is on them to track it down. At some point her estate's executor may need to post a notice and they have to find it (e.g. newspaper notice). In one of my relative's cases, despite owing some debts, the companies never filed claims and so the estate was closed without payment to those debts.

You're assuming there is an estate. If someone dies without assets, no one is going to be an executor and you can't force someone to do it

[Anonymous]

FWIW, when my Dad died and my Mom notified the credit card companies, they just canceled the current balances. It was just whatever was on them for that month, they always paid them off each month, so it wasn't a ton of money--but we were surprised because they were joint accounts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should look up what the laws are in your mother's state -- just google "do debts survive my death in [state]". The rules do differ and there's no one size fits all, so to avoid unpleasant surprises it's worth a little digging.

Filial responsibility is a law on the books that is rarely enforced.

[Anonymous]

I returned all mail, unopened, with DECEASED written across the envelope. Takes awhile, but it worked. A hospital managed to get my address, so I returned every bill with a note stating that the individual did not have funds to pay any bills and mailed it back to them, every time.

[Anonymous]

When my mom died I just ignored all the bills and eventually they stopped bothering me. She had no money anyway.