When I was applying for my Alaska Visa recently, I was asked if I wanted my husband to be an authorized user or a joint cardholder. The latter required his SSN, the former didn’t. I just typed in his name, and that was it. He now has a card, but he is not responsible for anything… that is on me. Although we are a community property state residents, so we are 50:50 responsible for any community debts.
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Good topic on widow/widower credit cards. I decided to keep my JetBlue Mastercard that I was thinking about cancelling ($40/year). Mentioned it last night at beer group (all retirees). One friend says she does have Kohls card, but none other. Now I have a to-do to figure out if our main credit card, United Visa with cards for each spouse that I’ve handled payment logistics, is joint or authorized user for me. (I do know main user is husband, since I only get free luggage if we fly together.
It might make sense for your wife to apply for her own card now. She can use your household income when applying. As more time elapses and she uses the new card, her own credit limit will increase. Also, if you pre-decease her, she will probably still have significant taxable income from interest, dividends, SS payments.
Business cards do not report to credit agencies, so she should have her own consumer card.
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Another important consideration for each individual being the primary card holder on at least one credit card (with their spouse being the joint card holder) is in case of incapacity—something that can happen unexpectedly, and also far earlier than one thinks they may be widowed.
I’ve mentioned my mom before, she was very active and healthy, and she had a brain aneurysm at 64 and couldn’t speak for two years (and when she did gradually regain speech, it was accompanied by cognitive deficits).
For decades she had handled all the household bookkeeping and bill paying, and as such happened to be the primary card holder on two of their credit cards with my Dad being the joint card holder—something that neither of them thought anything of at the time, for they both had their own card, and it was “their” credit card account.
Somewhere in the last 10 years or so my Dad had cancelled the two credit cards where he happened to be the primary card holder (it never occurred to him to think about this, as they were also “their” credit cards), because the reward benefits were better on the remaining two cards and there really wasn’t a need for them to have four credit cards at this point.
Well, there happened to be an issue with one of their cards a couple of months ago, and my Dad called the bank and…they told him since he wasn’t the primary card holder they couldn’t discuss this with him, they needed to go through the security questions with the primary card holder in order to make any changes to the account.
I hold POA for both my parents, and offered to send the bank a copy. Nope! They needed to talk with the primary card holder, and yet she is wholly incapable of answering security questions she set up decades ago, and she can’t answer alternative questions either.
Long story short: make sure that if you’re part of a couple to have at least one credit card that you are considered the primary on; the bank doesn’t view each card holder equally.
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The credit card account stuff is relevant for sure. I know I am primary on several cards. We are joint on the others with DH as primary. When one spouse is left after the death of the other, determine which cards one will want to continue using - and first contact the cards that living spouse is primary on, to take the other name off.
One will decide how much credit one will likely use and what cards one wants to have.
It also depends on what phase of life the remaining spouse is in on some of these decisions.
DH is primary on his Capital One which is his ‘go to’ card. We had enough points for the rent car we will have at our daughter’s on our May trip. My primary ‘go to’ card is one that I am primary on - Discover. I use my cash back along the way with purchases.
I am primary on our American Airline Visa card, which gives 1 free check in bag, and it gives a free checked bag to everyone in my family party to a certain number. DH and I are flying together and no problem on his free checked bag - I did need to enter his personal information along with his AA seven-digit personal ID number when I purchased the tickets. I pay $100/year for the privilege of this card - but I need to use AA to get to this daughter’s place and go enough for it to be worthwhile, and that was why I took out the card. We have yet to use the airline mileage accrued there. They offer a few simple ways to earn points in the next couple of months, so I may do that.
Joining in on this with regard to the death of a spouse.
I was very sad to lose our generous Marriott (Chase) Card. We just didn’t realize that I was only an authorized user. I already had my own Chase card, but DH’s was better. I also had my own Marriott account for points, so they were willing to move points and status to me. But I didn’t get the benefits of 10+ years of status. That old card gave one Elite Night credit for every $3500 spent.
I was the first name (the points were mine) on the Citibank Card with American Airlines, so not much changed. They might have issued a new card, but there was no penalty.
Nordstrom changed without a hassle. As did the LLBean card. So, it seems these latter 3 cards were joint.
Changing the USAA insurance account was time consuming, and I have no idea if I could have gotten a better financial deal, but it all worked out OK.
Our mortgage was in his name only (I think he re-fi’d when I was not home), the house is titled to our trust. I paid the mortgage on auto-pay, but they were very good about it when I finally told them he had died. They bills are now sent to “the estate of…” and payments are still on autopay.
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I hadn’t thought about status. I have high status on BA/Oneworld from butt-in-seat miles (it is for my lifetime), Hilton from credit card, Marriott from credit card, JB credit card. The BA/Oneworld is useful – last night I had dinner at the AA Flagship Lounge in Chicago and it gets me entrance to Cathay and other very good first class lounges. That would not transfer. The Marriott just comes from having the card, but the Hilton and JB status just come from annual usage/spend. So the latter two don’t really matter but I should figure out if the Marriott status could transfer.
More importantly, what happens to all of the points I’ve built up and haven’t gotten around to spending (in part because so much of my travel is tax deductible) – Amex Membership Rewards and Chase points, plus BA, JB, and every imaginable hotel chain. Do they transfer easily to the surviving spouse?
For the Marriott Status, I was given a choice of one year at his highest level (Titanium?) or two years at the next level down (Platinum?). I lost the “for life” options.
Also some at Marriott told me I could not have this choice, but someone else had provided it in writing, so I pushed for that to hold.
I hope this helps.
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Chase allows combining points within a household, but I think it requires having both spouses on the phone at the same time, and that might not be the first thing on your mind while on your deathbed. I do not think that AmEx allows combining within a household. I wonder what would happen if you were to add your wife as an AU on your AmEx? $195 for Plat and maybe free for Gold?
I don’t know anything about the hotel chains but my guess is that the status will not transfer to a spouse. I’m guessing that your wife does not have that status unless she is traveling with you?
I’d assume she gets the same status perks of an upgraded room, that is, if he lets her stay in the room with him. 
Otherwise, if a room is booked in her name, no status perks….which is why when I book my husband for a trip on his own, I book it in my name and call and add him to the reservation. That way he gets the upgraded room and free breakfast, and I get the stay credit. It’s one of the only “break the rule” things I generally do. Honey, make sure you tell them I’ll be coming in later. 
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Gosh wondering if we need a thread on the topic of credit cards / checking accounts after death of a spouse. I’m starting to wonder about the very many things we have on autopay in both places. (In our case, hubby primary on credit card. I am primary on our joint checking account… because when we moved to CO 30+ years ago there was no online access, and I knew I would be the one stopping at the credit union for financial tasks.) Things could get awkward when many autopays fail.
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I agree that there are a lot of moving pieces here–easy to overlook.
I believe the joint checking account survives the death of the first spouse, but like so many things, this may vary by financial institution? I was added as joint on my mother’s checking & savings, and was able to access those accounts after she died.
I was POA on her brokerage accounts, and that access ended up upon her death.
I gave up trying to see if there were any way to redeem her CC points.
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If the account is set up as JTWROS,
It means the account will belong to the surviving tenant whoever that is: spouse, child, cousin, friend, Elon Musk, etc. Avoids probate, too.
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Thanks for that info. I probably knew that at one time but I’ve forgotten all these years later.
The only thing that had to go through probate was the house, so the bank accounts must have been set up as JTWROS as you explained.
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My joint account with my mother in law was closed when I went to Bank of America with her death certificate. They insisted on changing it to an estate account with a new SS #. At the time they were very helpful and walked me through the entire process for all of her accounts at the bank. We had moved all her money to BofA as there was a branch near us and a branch near her making it was easy to work with them. I had been on her account for years, as I handled all her finances after my father in law died.
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were you on as a signer or Joint Owner? The reason I ask is that my folks had BofA, and before folks passed they added their niece to the account as Joint Owner to thier checking account, as she was living in the home helping out with ADL’s. When the last parent passed, and I presented a death cert to the local BofA branch as Trustee, they said that Niece was now legal owner of the balance. No question asked. (They didnt’ care what the Trust or Will said, a Joint Owner becomes sole owner when the others pass.)
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I believe I was joint owner on the checking account - as I had been signing checks to pay all the bills. Her other accounts (I think CDs) were just in her name. I was not the trustee, executor, or even in her will - my husband was.
@CT1417, you are correct. She does not get that status except I have booked rooms for her with my points and then they seem to honor the status. But if she books, status does not go with her.
With the Amex Plat, the biggest thing is that I have 1.5 MM points. I would not want them to vanish. I have always figured they were worth 1 cent per point, but a quick search shows that upgradedpoints.com thinks they are worth 2.2 cents per point. I guess the main point here is that surviving spouses don’t necessarily have access to the card at all (including the various perks like lounge access) unless they have they are primary and that post-retirement, it might be hard to get approved for the card. Need to think about this though hopefully that problem is a distant reality.
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I saw this today. It might be helpful for those with credit cards points.
My mother-in-law is in her late 80’s and has had quite a few friends widowed this past year. They have shared the difficulties of navigating banking and credit cards with her. It has made her concerned and she has a lot of questions as to how her own credit is set up.
Another time to look into credit card accounts is during or prior to a divorce. My sister who has been trying to divorce for several years realized when she was considering filing that their main credit card had her just as an authorized user. She applied for her own card before separation as she wanted to make sure they used the joint income when establishing credit limits.
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In the 1990’s, and employee of mine had a stepfather who was a renowned physicist who had taught at West Point and was expert in areas that had him later traveled extensively with his work. He had over 1 million miles on United, and his wife and her kids were able to use his airline points after he died.
Things change over time, so understanding how things work when one has a lot of points/benefits accrued that you want to be able to carry over to a spouse or other.