Actually, this is incorrect.
In the state of New York, it IS perfectly legal for them to talk to the legal spouse about anything related to his wife's account AND they can attempt to collect though him on that account. They can NOT garnish HIS wages, but they can attach all joint assets - anything jointly owned, like checking accounts, a jointly owned home, etc.
The only states with restrictions on credit card companies talking to a spouse of their customer are: Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, and South Carolina. And even in those states, spouses might still be ok to talk to, depending on factors such as if they are currently residing together or not, if the spouse in question ok's the conversation, or if relaying information about the account, but not attempting to actually make a collection over the phone. Note that things are different if the contact is made from a third party collector - but that's not what we have in this case. This is the actual credit card company, and they DO get to talk to NY spouses.
This is all covered under the privacy initiatives portions of The Gramm-Leach Bliley Act and falls under the auspices of the Federal Trade Commission.
You can learn more at
http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/privacyin...es/glbact.html

