Be sure and cancel your credit cards before you die!

[Richard C]

I take no credit for this having poached it from a mate on another forum;

Reported in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle recently;

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

A lady died this past September, and MBNA bank billed her for October and November for their annual service charges on her credit card, and then added late fees and interest on the monthly charge.

The balance that had been £0.00, now is somewhere around £60.

A family member phoned the MBNA Bank:

Family Member:
'I am calling to tell you that she died in September.'

MBNA:
'The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply.'

Family Member:
'Maybe you should turn it over to collections.'

MBNA:
'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?'

MBNA:
'Either report her account to the frauds division or report her to the
credit bureau, maybe both!'

Family Member:
'Do you think God will be mad at her?'

MBNA:
'Excuse me?'

Family Member:
'Did you just get what I was telling you . The part about her being dead?'

MBNA:
'Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor.'

Supervisor gets on the phone

Family Member:
'I'm calling to tell you, she died in September.'

MBNA:
'The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply.'

Family Member:
'You mean you want to collect from her estate?'

MBNA:
(Stammer) 'Are you her lawyer?'

Family Member:
'No, I'm her grandson' (Lawyer info given)

MBNA:
'Could you fax us a certificate of death?'

Family Member:
'Sure.' (fax number is given)

After they get the fax:

MBNA:
'Our system just isn't set up 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, I don't think she will care.'

MBNA:
'Well, the late fees and charges do still apply.'

Family Member:
'Would you like her new billing address?'

MBNA:
'That might help.'

Family Member:
' Heaton Cemetery , Heaton Road , Newcastle upon Tyne Plot 1049.'

MBNA:
'Sir, that's a cemetery!'

Family Member:
'Well, what the **** do you do with dead people on your planet?'

MBNA were not available for comment when a reporter from the Newcastle Evening Chronicle rang.

 

[gregers]

brillient

 

[slick50]

What planet do these people live on??

 

[jrplastering]

haha my dad died at the beginin of the year (thats not what i was laughing at by the way) but we had the same problem with a barcleys credit card.
anyway they asked to speak to him even though we had told them he was dead, so we arranged a meeting with them and took dads ashes down with us.
havent herd from them scince strangley

 

[conny]

Mates wife died in February. He duly notified all the relevant people, banks/building societies/insurance firms etc.
2 Building societies, no problem. They closed the accounts, added the interest and paid the money into her estate.
1 insurance company and 2, yes two! pension funds refused him to access the accounts WITHOUT HER WRITTEN PERMISSION!!!
1 bank closed the account but won't let him access the funds as she dies intestate.
1 bank will not close a loan account she had in her own name only and keeps pestering HIM for back payments plus interest since February.
At one stage when they phoned and asked to speak to her he explained again that she had passed away more than 6 months previously. The caller, an english woman by the way, insisted she still needed to speak to her and was she at home? (You can just picture this can't you?)
Mate: "Yes, she's in the house."
Bank: "Can you pass her the phone please?"
Mate: "OK."
At this he places the phone next to the urn contaning her ashes and goes the corner shop for some bread and fags.
15 minutes or so later he returns. Picks up the phone and puts it to his ear to hear the same woman saying;

"Hello? Mrs xxxxx, will you please speak to me? I need to talk about your over due payments."
He lay the phone back down and left it there for the rest of the afternoon.
He doesn't know how long it was before she finally gave up.
But he still gets calls and letters. As he says, when they finally do sort it out he's in for a nice tidy sum for the hassle.

 

[opps]

Unfortunately there are too many scum sucking firms out there that hide behind incomprehensible legalese and try desperately to suck your blood whilst at the same time time making you jump thru unnecessary loops and hurdles.

Start rant here------

In a moment of weakness I took out phone insurance with fonesafe when I sold my soul for an 18 month contract with t-mobile. The handset replacement cost was about £560 so i thought what the hell- £9pm to Fonesafe for a while- why not?

I phoned my phone insurers, Fonesafe, back in march to tell that I had lost my phone whilst in Latvia. I didn't get a crime number (didn't know that it was possible to get a crime number when there has been no crime). They refused my claim (fair enough- mea culpa for not getting a crime number).

Later I noticed that the thieving barstewards were continuing to take my money months later. I phoned Fonesafe thinking that it was a genuine error, assuming that they would refund my money.

Nope- they gloated and said it was my fault for not cancelling the (rolling) contract and that I should have read the T&Cs.

I asked Fonesafe mobile phone insurance what kind of cover they were giving me for a phone that they know is missing. Again- "you should have cancelled the contract and btw you need to give us 28 days notice".

I had thought that I would be covered by the Direct Debit mandate so I rang Barclays bank. The fellow was very sympathetic and agreed that fonesafe insurance were being unreasonable. he tried to recover my money but Fonesafe refused to allow their system to. Seemingly contrary to the principle of the Direct Debit mandate.

Last month I got a letter from Fecksafe telling me that they missed me and were unable to get any money from my bank account, I am guessing that barclays are blocking current thefts by Fonesafe CPP.

The upshot is that the ****£rs are trying to steal about £80 for a phone that doesn't exist and that they would not cover even it is was returned from Latvia.

In time I will contact the FSA and set up a website in America to slag them off (covered by the first over there) and warn potential customers.


End of rant----------------------------

On a more dispassionate note it is time that the we had laws stating that contracts should be far and equitable, that some common sense should apply/prevail regardless of the *******s hiden in the contract. It is unreasoneable for the relatives of the bereaved to have to go to such great lengths to prove that someone they love has died (whilst the are still grieving) when the company that they are dealing with would have easy access to the information as it part of the public domain.

Ironically when i was at uni my flatmate died. He was being pursued by debt collectors. I sent a letter telling them about his demise. They had the decency to check rather than sending more letters to us.



Apologies for the rant I have only been ripped off by a handful of companies: Windmill plumbing in Ruislip HA4, fonesafe and www.fasthosts.co.uk , been treated badly by others but not enough to send me into grumpy mode

 

[jrplastering]

we are still struggling with one of my dads insurance companys, even though they have had his death certificate signed by my brother they still dnt believe my dad is dead.
so before we can collect the money from the insurance which by the way is just goin to pay for the funeral, which me and my brother paid for, so like i said, before we can collect on the insurance we have to pay for legal letters which will cost us about £2000 and as the funeral emptied our funds is impossible for us to get.
its a horrible thing to go through as i personally feel that until this last thing is sorted out i cant come to peace with my fathers death as im always getting phone calls and letters from the insurance company

 

[opps]

Hi Jrplastering

I feel pretty awful whining given what you have had to endure.

insurance companies are pretty heartless B^^stards sometimes. it makes one wonder if it is worth having any kind of insurance.

i hope that it is sorted as soon as possible

When you are ready i hope that you find the time to complain to the FSA. They are the only body able to keep the w*nk£rs in check.

I really am sorry that i can not help you, I would recommend, if you feel up to it, that you relay your sorry to the legal section of

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=57

warmest regards

 

[jrplastering]

thank you very much for your usefull post opps i will have a look at it in greater detail tomorow as it is my little girls 3rd birthday today and she wants to be out on her new bike al day haha .
thank you again
JRP

 

[JohnD]

I have to say I think the "Reported in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle recently" is probably a hoax. the wording (espcially " figure it out" "God will be mad at her" "sir" and "supervisor" sounds like it was poached from an American hoax.

In my experience, if you send a letter, preferably with a copy of the death certificate (ask for it to be returned) the things described here do not happen.

The banks also usually have a facility to pay funds out of a deceased's account direct to a funeral director, though the procedures are not always easy, especially if you are not used to them.

It is not unusual to take a year or more after a death to sort out the estate, and established companies know this, though if they think they have a chance of getting someone else to pay, they may try.

 

[opps]

You are right it is used elsewhere with different organisations named

eg

http://www.bonaberi.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4568

 

[JohnD]

sorry Richard, I guess you haven't got such a suspicious mind.

 

[Richard C]

sorry Richard, I guess you haven't got such a suspicious mind.

Most of my family would disagree with that I think I did say I took no credit for authenticity. I just thought it was rather funny & indicative of what can happen with some inflexible & brain-dead customer services departments. Other posts here would seem to indicate that such things do happen & I personally had similar problems with my father’s rental TV contract when acting as his executor & he died over 10 years ago.

 

[Robert9999]

JRPlastering. There is no need to spend £2000 on legal fees. Get probate which costs less than £100. You will then have a court order that you can give the insurance company (or any other financial institution) requiring them to give you the money.

I went through this process after my mother died earlier this year. It takes a few weeks but companies won't disobey a court order.

 

[Mw Roofline]

The dead credit card thing has been doing the rounds since 2006 and gets posted on various forums and blogs where the bank name is changed to suit.