[jharvey216]

My sister took out a credit card with her boyfriend. They have now parted ways and have $16,000 in debt. THere is no dispute that all the charges are his. She is the primary card holder. They have tried to get her name off of the card to no avail. Both of them have called the company together and filled out the required paperwork to have her name removed. They are getting nowhere. Now her boyfriend is planning on filing bankruptcy and wants to include this card - but can't due to her name being on it. Neither one of them want to keep her name on it and he wants to include it in the bankruptcy. What can they do? She is worried she will be held responsible for his debt.

[aaron]

The boyfriend, ideally, could obtain a loan to pay off the card or could transfer the balance to a different card. However, if his credit situation is so bad that he is considering bankruptcy, he probably doesn't have the available credit. Such a loan would likely also be challenged as having been obtained by fraud, should a bankruptcy follow shortly after the money was borrowed. (There are even presumptions that certain debts obtained within a certain period of time before a bankruptcy is filed were obtained in bad faith.)

The boyfriend also needs to speak with a bankruptcy lawyer about his situation, and how any bankruptcy filing he might pursue will be affected by the pending federal bankruptcy legislation. The new bankruptcy law may significantly affect any benefit he would receive from filing for bankruptcy protection.

Your sister is in a very awkward situation. She might ultimately have to refinance the debt herself, to avoid the high interest rates, while perhaps obtaining from the boyfriend some form of loan or indemnificaiton agreement such that he makes the payments, and an agreement that the debt to her would not be discharged or restructured in bankruptcy. That, though, is the type of agreement she should have drafted by a lawyer.