Cancel your credit cards before you die

[samhass]

I saw this and sure hope it's not true.


Be sure and cancel your credit cards before you die. This is so priceless, and so, so easy to see happening, customer service being what it is today.

A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her credit card, and added late fees and interest on the monthly charge.

The balance had been $0.00 when she died, but now its somewhere around $60.00.

A family member placed a call to Citibank.

Here is the exchange :

Family Member: 'I am calling to tell you she died back in January.'
Citibank: 'The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply.'
Family Member: 'Maybe, you should turn it over to collections.'
Citibank: 'Since it is two months past due, it already has been.'
Family Member: So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?'
Citibank: 'Either report her account to frauds division or report her to the credit bureau, maybe both!'
Family Member: 'Do you think God will be mad at her?'
Citibank: 'Excuse me?'
Family Member: 'Did you just get what I was telling you - the part about her being dead?'
Citibank: 'Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor.'

Supervisor gets on the phone:

Family Member: 'I'm calling to tell you, she died back in January with a $0 balance.'
Citibank: 'The account was never closed and late fees and charges still apply.'
Family Member: 'You mean you want to collect from her estate?'
Citibank: (Stammer) 'Are you her lawyer?'
Family Member: 'No, I'm her great nephew.' (Lawyer info was given)
Citibank: 'Could you fax us a certificate of death?'
Family Member: 'Sure.' (Fax number was given )

After they get the fax:

Citibank: 'Our system just isn't setup for death. I don't know what more I can do to help.'
Family Member: 'Well, if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her. She won't care.'
Citibank: 'Well, the late fees and charges do still apply.' (What is wrong with these people?!?)
Family Member: 'Would you like her new billing address?'
Citibank: 'That might help.'
Family Member: ' Odessa Memorial Cemetery , Highway 129, Plot Number 69.'
Citibank: 'Sir, that's a cemetery!'
Family Member: 'And what do you do with dead people on your planet???

[Russ_Boston]

Very funny SH - I'll make sure my cards have no annual fee!

[handieman]

Sam, that is so believable however lucky him he got one that spoke English after pressing one for English, then 3 for cancellations, then 2 for phone payments, then 1 again for customer representative,then .........................
Any one ever been there??
Handie :joke:

[SteveZ]

If this really is a true story, my warped sense of humor would have been to take the bill that was mailed, fill out the change-of-address segment (with the cemetery info) and mail it back.

[beady]

SteveZ, what a good idea.

Actually I have a real story.
When my Dad died he had one card with a $300.00 balance. My sister the executrix of his estate payed the bill and canceled the card. We continued to receive bills for 2 months with the same situation as Samhass's story. After 6 months and interest piling up our lawyer sent the company a death certificate. Bills continued to arrive and on advise from our lawyer and we ignored them. Finally after a year the billing stopped. Go figure!!!!
Maybe I should check Dad's credit report 1rnfl 1rnfl

[Muncle]

A cousin of mine down in the Ozarks wanted her husband to look good in the casket, so she went out and rented him a tuxedo. Gotta admit, he did look awful spiffy. Unfortunately, the undertaker forgot about it when they buried him and they eventually lost the doublewide over the payments.

[Sidney Lanier]

I suppose anything is possible, though this story seems a bit over the edge; I can't imagine credit card companies, especially one such as Citibank, not equipped to handle the deaths of their cardholders. I was a volunteer with Hospice for many years, and one of the stories I heard had to do with a man who was so overwhelmed with debt from multiple amputations, further surgical modifications of amputations, and prostheses that he just accepted every credit card offer made to him, ran each up to its limit, paid interest only (minimum payments) each month till he died, and apparently the credit card companies had no choice but to write off the debt. What a world!

[chuckinca]

Years ago I had a checking and savings account with Bank of America.

I also had an automatic bi-weekly savings taken from the checking and deposited into the savings.

After a few years I decided to cancel the automatic deposit. A few weeks later the bank made the auto deposit. I went to the branch and complained and they corrected it. A few weeks later they made the auto deposit again - I went to the branch and got really mad at them. Two weeks later another auto deposit - I went to the branch and closed the savings account. Two weeks later another auto deposit but into the closed savings account - I went to the branch and closed the checking account. Two weeks later another auto deposit from the closed checking account to the closed savings account.
I let it pass because I figured they would catch on. About two months later I get a letter from a collection agency demanding the overdraft balance in the checking account including penalties and interest!

[Bill345]

10 years ago I tried to open a bank account. The Service rep, sitting across the desk from me, said she could not open the account because Social Security said I was dead.

I went to the local Social Security office where a nice clerk found death benefits had been paid under my numbers 20 years earlier. She got her boss in a back room somewhere to write a letter stating that I was alive. (He never saw me.)

I never took the letter back to the bank service rep to prove I was alive so I could open an account.
I stayed with my old bank

Now I have a letter from a man who has never seen me to prove to people I deal with in person that I am alive.

[Muncle]

Hey Rocky,
Some days you kinda need a letter like that to reassure yourself.

[Sidney Lanier]

Kind of off subject (is there a fine?), but some years ago one of our sons, using one of our cars to join us on a camping trip, arrived and pointed out that our car registration was about to expire in two days. We managed to find a local Motor Vehicle Department office (we were in our home state) and stopped in on the next weekday to inquire why we hadn't received a renewal form. The response: "You won't receive a renewal form on plates that you surrendered." I invited the clerk to come into the parking lot to see the clearly un-surrendered plates still firmly on the car. There was nothing she--or the manager of the Motor Vehicle office--could do to remedy this other than to issue a temporary registration and refer the matter to our home county's Motor Vehicle office. It took them FOUR MONTHS to figure out how to fix this seemingly simple problem which we attributed to someone having a dyslexic moment....

[Peggy D]

Don't laugh, my daughters' mother-in-law passed away a few years ago. Almost a simular story.

What is wrong with some people??

???