I was the Executor of my step-father's estate. Mom passed away before he did, so I don't know if a surviving spouse is responsible for credit card debt but I would think so. After his death, all I had to do was to provide the latest CC statement and a certified copy of his Death Certificate from the Coroner's Office to each of the credit card companies and the debt/interest was cancelled. These were relatively small amounts in his case, but be advised it may be different is there is a significant amount owed. Best to have an estate attorney established ahead of time that can advise you on this.
To make life a little easier on the Executor get a list of all outstanding loans, credit card accounts, phone and utilities accounts, auto and property titles, descendants names/birthdays/social security numbers, etc in advance. This is NOT a fun process and the Executor is entitled to a percentage off the top of the estate before distribution of the residual. This is a smaller percentage than estate attorney makes, of course ...
