My Fiancee And an Ex Had a Joint Account at a Furniture Store. This Doesn’t End Well. – Noname

Noname

“Dear Steve,

My fiancee and an ex had a joint account at a furniture store. When they split she forgot to remove him from the account and he ran up a 15,000 bill. The company has now put a judgement and garnishment against her for the full amount because they can’t find the guy. Any ideas

How do we get her clear of the debt. She didn’t know he used the account and they didn’t tell her he used it.

Noname”

Dear Noname,

The obvious problem is that there was a joint line of credit out there that was not closed and the dude went out and ran up the debt and then split. That leaves your fiancee on the hook as a joint account holder.

If she had notified the furniture store to close the account, and it had a zero balance, they should have, or at least removed her. That doesn’t sound like what happened here.

I think you’ll have to hire a local attorney and she will have to file suit against him for the money. Out of curiosity, were the monthly statements on this account being sent to her address or one she used to live at.

Steve Rhode Debt Coach and Author

Steve Rhode is the Get Out of Debt Guy and has been helping good people with bad debt problems since 1994. You can learn more about Steve, here.

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