Joint Credit Card and Bankruptcy

by jamie
(Louisiana)

My mom had me as an authorized user on a Chase credit card. She filed bankruptcy and now they have made me primary card holder and reported to credit bureaus as a charge off account. Is this legal? What can I do?

Reply from DebtCollectionAnswers.com:

Jamie - If you are an authorized user on an account, the issuer can't simply "switch" you to a joint account holder. In addition, if you are simply an authorized user then this should not appear on your credit reports with a bankruptcy notation.

However, fighting this on your own, against a large issuer, is not going to be easy. We recommend you contact a consumer law attorney. There is an attorney in Louisiana who handles credit reporting issues. Here is his contact info:

David Szwak
Bodenheimer, Jones & Szwak, LLC
509 Market Street, Suite 730
United Mercantile Bank Building,
Shreveport, Louisiana 71101
318-221-6444 / fax 318-221-6555
e-mail: bjks1507@aol.com or david@myfaircredit.com

Please let us know how this turns out.