Q: Are purchases on credit card divided between heirs if one heir is a card holder on account?
My Dad has a huge depot card and my sis is a card holder. Recently the fridge broke and then the microwave. She bought new ones, BOTH charged to home Depot with the credit card. I had found a cheaper microwave at Walmart but she insisted it come from home Depot. The fridge was over $3000. Does she automatically get those when he passes because she is a card holder? She's bought a lawn mower, weed eater and chainsaw as well. She keeps them locked away and I'm unable to do yardwork with them. Can she do that?
A:
A cardholder who is an authorized user of someone else's credit card is not the person legally responsible for the debt. The account holder is responsible for the debt and can authorize whomever he likes to make charges on his credit card account. Since you are not the account holder, you are not legally responsible for the debt and have no legal right to complain about who he allows to use his credit card.
Your father has authorized your sister to use his Home Depot credit card to buy things for herself. She has no legal obligation to allow you to use her things, including those she purchased using the Home Depot credit card.
When your father dies, his estate will be legally obligated to pay his creditors, including Home Depot. Your father can, in his Last Will and Testament, make provisions to reduce whatever bequest he leaves to your sister in proportion to that portion of the debt remaining on his Home Depot credit card which was incurred by her, but he is under no legal obligation to do so. Most testators simply include a provision in their Will instructing their executor to pay any outstanding debts out of the residue of their estate before distributing anything to the heirs named in the Will.
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