Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in New York

Shared credit cards

I opened up two credit cards for my fiance 2 years ago and although I was the primary card user he was an authorized user for those two years. He had bad credit and his credit card had a very high interest rate so I opened these cards to help him out. I did not use them to make any purchases from the moment he became a user. In fact, I cut my cards up. Needless to say we broke up and now he is being very irresponsible w/paying the bills. He sometimes forgets to make the payments, claims that he doens't have enough money to pay them or is late w/the payment. All of this is reflective in my credit report, not his! It has been 9 months and he still has not opened up his own credit card so he can transfer it to his name. TOday I finally informed him that we'll have to go to small claims court if he doesn't come up w/a solution in the next month. He now is saying that I shouldn't threaten him because he has ''no legal obligation to pay it''. Is this true? I have emails of us going back and forth for the past few months where he admits to it being his debt. If I do take him to court would I have a case or should I just cut my losses and pay it myself? It's close to 10k in total.

thanks


Asked on 2/20/07, 5:27 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Frank Pintauro Donohue & Partners, PC

Re: Shared credit cards

You are ultimately responsible to the credit card companies. Your ex-boyfriend is not obligated to pay the balances. The credit card companies will not pursue your ex-boyfriend for the money. You should call and close the accounts and make arrangements to pay off the balances. Obtain copies of all your statements and then you can bring a small claims action your ex-boyfriend to seek reimbursement.

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Answered on 2/21/07, 10:27 am


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