Dead Parent -- New Credit Card

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mail for your deceased mother being sent to your sister's address isn't all that surprising, for the reasons given. We get mail for our son who has never lived at our current address. A new credit card for a deceased person would be surprising. No company is going to open a new account for someone whose credit report says they're deceased, right? And if her credit report doesn't have her marked as deceased, then you probably know enough about her history (past addresses, vehicles, etc.) to get her credit report online and check it.

I can check her report logistically but not legally. I don’t have any document stating who is executer of the estate. You are supposed to file all this documentation to request it.

Who is the executor? Get the executor to look into it.

There was no documented executor. My dad had made us beneficiaries or co-owners of their meager assets (school annuity, checking accounts), so when they died we just assumed ownership and sold the house (worth $40k in 2012). There was no money or need for a lawyer, so no formal will and no executor assigned. We mailed death certificate to the relevant parties to close out credit cards and whatever, we probably didn’t mail it to credit agencies.

Googling I can’t see who is executer when it’s not documented and not the spouse?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mom died over a decade ago. My sister moved to a new state and bought a condo 5 years after she died.

Today she got a letter from Discover about how they were being acquired by Capital One. It has my MOTHERs name, and my sisters new address -- someplace my mother never even visited let alone lived there.

She does not recall getting any other mail about this. Sister will check her own credit report; we don't see any easy way to check a deceased persons credit without a lawyer, and we don't have the money for that .

Is there anything to worry about it? What action should we take? Report to FTC? Police Report? Contact Discover?

Getting a credit report wasn't too difficult for DW's deceased mother. We had all the necessary information about mortgages, etc. to answer the security questions.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like it's not a new credit card but an old one that was never closed. Just show them the death certificate and you can close it now.

[Anonymous]

You keep talking about "legal authority." Just go to the credit sites and check her credit reports. She is dead, who is going to sue you?

[Anonymous]

Was the letter a marketing letter, or was it about an actual active account?