I'm not sure if this is the right place for this topic but here goes. I've got a question for the lawyer type folks regarding credit card debt. Here's the situation:
Guy has a credit card. He meets Girl, they get married, he has a credit card on HIS account issued with her name on it. Throughout the course of their marriage, they use the card for mostly big ticket items. The balance is paid off on more than one occasion, then run up again. During the marriage, the couple kept their finances mostly seperate. They had a joint checking account, and individual accounts. All bills, including the monthly credit card bill were split 50/50 & paid from the joint account. Girl paid $100/month towards the credit card. After a 6yr marriage, Girl leaves Guy and he cancels the card with her name on it - but he keeps the account open. Even though she doesn't have a card with her name on it anymore, Girl continues paying her $100/mo. Couple officially divorces and nowhere in the divorce decree is the credit card debt mentioned. They have verbally agreed to split the debt & Girl intends to pay it in one lump sum but wasn't able to pay the full amount at once, so she continued paying $100/mo. She has been paying for the lst 3yrs 4 months, for a total of $4000. The original amount she agreed to pay was in the neighborhood of $4200. She thinks that she is getting close to being paid off but Guy says "No, Girl still owes the FULL amount."
Turns out, Guy not only kept the account open he continued using the card after they split up. He used it to purchase furniture for the apartment he moved into after vacating the marital home (he refused to take any of their existing furniture) then a year later he used the card to finance a move to New Mexico. He charged the card up so much that the amount that was being paid monthly was only barely covering the minimum amount due, which means it wasn't actually paying down the outstanding balance.
My question is (sorry for such a long post!) who is actually responsible? The account was his before the marriage, her name was never on the account (just a card issued with her name on it). She's paid $4000 of her agreed upon $4200, yet he maintains that she still owes him $4200. Is that correct? He's threatened to take her to court if she stops paying $100/month without paying a lump sum of $4200.
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