Close credit cards

You need to pay out and close any existing credit cards the deceased person had.

  • Note that if the estate doesn’t have all of the money to pay the debts, you should not pay credit cards first. Double-check what you are obligated to pay in our debt instructions.

  • Also note that this can cancel existing subscriptions, so double-check that you want to cancel these first.

  1. First, find all of the deceased’s credit cards:

    • You can usually do this by going through the deceased’s wallet/purse

    • Additionally, when you get the final credit reports back, you can double-check that you found them all. If you’re not sure how to do that, check out the credit report instructions.

  2. Call the credit card customer service lines. You can find the phone number on the back of each card. If you can’t find it, here are the numbers for common credit cards:

    • American Express: 1-800-528-4800

    • Barclaycard: 1-302-622-8990

    • Capital One: 1-800-955-7070

    • Chase: 1-800-432-3117

    • Citi Credit Cards: 1-800-347-4934

    • Discover Card: 1-800-347-2683

  3. Give the deceased’s name, birthday, Social Security number, and tell them why you are canceling the card

    • They will ask you to pay any money that is owed on the card

    • Make sure that you are okay with canceling the subscriptions that are associated with that card. If not, make sure to transfer them to a different account

finance, settling affairsJennifer Goodfinance, debt pay, financial and propertyComment