I know this is a strange question. The father of a good friend just died in December. He was at a nursing home. After his death, someone started applying for credit cards in his name with the address of the nursing home. One of the cc companies called my friend with some questions (I don't know how they got his number). The bottom line is that the new accounts were cancelled and the credit file at each CRA was noted. This same thing happened when my dad died two years ago. The culprit got one card before a stop was put to his deeds. My questions are these: Is there any mechanism in place to notify the CRA's of a death? How long after a death do the the CRA's find out? Is the credit file normally noted that a death has occured? If so, how long does it take? Or, do they just note the file if they are asked to? How can a person prevent this type of fraud after a love one dies?
Re: effect of death on credit repor Normally the CRAs update their files out of the Social Security Death Index. It takes several months between the time a death occurs and when the decedant makes it into the index. In the meantime, this is the best opportunity for scammers to pull stunts like that. I'm sure these people have contacts who work in nursing homes to provide them with information and also to intercept the mail that comes in. As instances like this are clearly fraud, it shouldn't have a detrimental effect on the settlement of the estate. Just out of curiosity, I wonder what effect death has on ones FICO score.
Re: effect of death on credit repor My mom died September 11, 2000. 2 weeks ago my dad gets a credit card in the mail in her name. It's a Platinum Select from Citi. Seems she had one and it expired so they sent her a new card. I would have though all that time with no activity on the account they would have surely closed the card by now (or at least reduced the cl). So cc companies must really be slow in checking out the social security info... I called Citi to cancel the card and let them know of my mom's passing. The guy I spoke with was very nice and even apologized for sending the card. It certainly wasn't his fault that the card was sent out, but it sure upset my dad - not because of the card, but becuase yet another piece of mail with my mom's name on it. What's even worse is when telemarketers call and ask for my mom..... They were married 39 years. Ozzy.
The best thing to do is to send a certified copy of the death certificate to each of the 3 CRAs. They'll note the account as "deceased" and that should prevent fraud attempts from being successful. I had to do this several years ago and the accounts were all noted within a week of the mailing of the death certificates. It turned out to be one thing they handled very efficently.
After the 1,000th call and/or mail...my DAD'S new address is... Rose Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary 3888 South Workman Mill Road Whittier, CA 90601 562-699-0921 Fax: 562-699-6372 http://www.rosehills.com
We had to do this with Prodigy. They refused to cancel my mom's account even after saying she died. They kept sending bill after bill - this went on for about 6 months even AFTER we sent the death certificate. Had to send ANOTHER one to them... and just to cancel internet service??!! Bizarre. Ozzy.
