A month ago I ran a credit report for the first time ever and found out that I have 3 credit cards. I've never opened a credit card in my life. I called up the card companies and found through some digging that they had all been opened up by my mom.
I tried to ask her about it, but she had started to experience some terrible health problems... Long story short, she passed away 12 hours ago from complications with cancer. I never got to talk to her about the cards, the cancer had her loopy and it just never seemed like the right time.
Now, I'm wondering what to do about these cards. Here's the details:
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Closed, open for 4 years, 9 late payments. $0 balance. "Canceled by credit grantor"
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Closed, open for 4 years, no payment history. $550 balance. "Charged off as bad debt Profit and loss write-off"
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Open, open for 9 years, no late payments. $600 balance, 80% credit utilization.
This is all new to me, but I'm guessing there's some way to get these cards back in my mom's name, even though she's passed away. Again, I've never opened a card or used credit my entire life.
I need to know how to deal with this, but here's the real question: I ran the report because I was thinking about building credit... 2 of these 3 cards are obviously bad for me, but one of them has 9 years of current payments. I'm assuming that this was a poor attempt at her part on building my credit. Is it worth keeping the $600 debt to have 9 years of on time payments, considering I have no other foundation of credit at 26 years old? Is this even an option?
TL,DR; My now deceased mother started 3 cards in my name without my knowledge. 2 are obviously bad for me, but one might not be. What should I do?
Submitted March 04, 2017 at 03:52PM by OriginalDebt http://ift.tt/2mZZhyC
