Consumer complaint received 2021-03-04
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: NY
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Information belongs to someone else

Complaint:
My husband passed away in XXXX of XXXX. He was the sole card owner of a Discover Credit Card account on which he owed {$14.00}, XXXX. I was an authorized user of the card. It was NOT a joint account. 

Upon his passing, I notified Discover, so that they could close his account. It was then that they claimed I was a joint account holder and that I was responsible for paying off his debt. I spoke with Discover on the phone a number of times in XXXX, informing them that I was only an authorized user of this card, and had never been a cardholder. 

Discover claimed that I had been added as a joint cardholder to my husbands credit card back in XXXX. Knowing that this was incorrect, I asked them to produce any proof or signed contract to substantiate their claim. To this request they replied that I had given verbal permission to be added as an account holder via a phone conversation back in XXXX. This is completely false. They said they could provide no physical proof of this event. To this day, they have never supplied any evidence to substantiate their false claim. 

I was only an authorized user of the card. It was NEVER a joint account, and I never took any actions to be added to this account as a card owner. Therefore I am not responsible for payment of this account. However, my credit has been decimated by years of my husbands Discover debt being falsely attributed to me as a Charge Off after his passing.

Discover harassed me by phone and mail for months, threatening that I was responsible for this debt, and that if it was not paid it would be sent to collections. I refused. The account has never been sent to collections. As this was never my account, and they have NO signed contract to support their false claims, they are likely unable to sell this debt to a collections agency. After our request to see evidence of a signed contract, Discovers constant harassment came to an abrupt end. 

Unfortunately, this debt continues to reflect negatively on my credit report. My family and I have reached out to Discover representatives multiple times, by phone and mail, requesting that they absolve me of the wrongful debt attributed to me. In XXXX of XXXX, I submitted credit disputes with all three major credit bureaus in an attempt to correct years of false late-payment and charge-off claims associated with this account. These credit disputes yielded no results. 
Immediately after the resolution of these disputes, I received a 1099-C form from Discover ( dated XX/XX/XXXX ), effectively discharging the debt of {$14000.00}. 

However, my credit score has been completely and unjustly decimated by this debt. Additionally, the IRS is now charging me a tax of {$3000.00} for the cancellation of a debt that was never mine to begin with. 

This situation has resulted in a debilitating financial burden and has taken a tremendous emotional toll on my family and me. I have always paid my bills promptly and have no other outstanding debts. Discovers false claim has unjustly tarnished my reputation, questioned my integrity, and hindered my ability to utilize a credit score that accurately reflects my payment history.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief