I cannot believe I am still fucking with this credit card

[susandennis]

For nearly a year now I have been trying to cancel Mom's Bank of America credit card. Turns out this is actually not fucking possible. No matter how many calls I make, how may times I fax the request in writing, no matter how many times they send me a letter confirming that the card is canceled... it is not.

The old canceled card even expired in August of 2005. BUT did this stop Bank of America from accepting a charge, from Time Magazine, and sending a bill? Heck no!

So... I just spent 40 minutes on the phone with Bank of America. I went through two people before I got to a woman who sounded for all the world like a white haired country club matron. She was the one who actually 'got' it. She went through her script and with a fairly ingenious use of pauses and sounds, prompted me through answers that she needed to make sure it all got fixed. She was very clever. "I need to mark down here, when you canceled Time Magazine. [note, I never said the mag was canceled] They want a date - can you pinpoint when it might have been? Near some holiday like maybe Memorial Day?" She was pretty much cracking me up by this time.

Then I call Mom who remembers renewing Time and probably used the Bank of America number but couldn't remember. Since the card had been canceled and was expired, they should not have accepted it. But, I got her to look in her book and her purse and read the the numbers of all credit cards she might ever want to use. Sure enough one of them was the Bank of America one and she swears now it is totally crossed out.

We reviewed which cards she should use again. I also found out that she has never heard from Appleseed after she placed a large and laborious online order the other day. She says she used the right credit card but since she never heard from them, I'm guessing she screwed up the order. That sucks. It takes her so long and now she's going to have to do it all again. Poor thing.

Then on to Time where I got a fun guy who actually made that end of it very easy. He found Mom's account, swapped out the credit cards and said he's see that a credit was sent back to Bank of America.

The next time Bank of America opens up that account again, I am going to call them and tell them the card was stolen. I think that is the only way you can get them to close an account. Fuck 'em.

Comments

[katbyte.livejournal.com]

The next time Bank of America opens up that account again, I am going to call them and tell them the card was stolen. I think that is the only way you can get them to close an account. Fuck 'em.

We had the same problem. Finally sent the bill for annual charge back with "Deceased" written across it. That did it.

[susandennis]

That is BRILLIANT! And probably a little more legal. If caught I can always say that she had a miraculous recovery!

[pheon.livejournal.com]

However, note that if they are like college alumni associations --- and I can see a similarity --- it may not work.

During the time that my brother was working in Brazil, I was his US address. He really wanted to get rid of the University magazine and all the appeals for money, so on one of the letters, I wrote 'deceased' and sent it back. And it worked!

For two years. Then they started up again. So now you know the resurrection time of an M.I.T grad. :-)

[susandennis]

Ok, now that's good. I actually thought you were going to say that once they got that he was dead, they started in on you or his wife for inheritance money!

brilliant ... unless ...

[henare.livejournal.com]

they report the deadness to a credit bureau. then you have a problem. :(

[dragonvpm.livejournal.com]

I actually did the "I lost the card" thing recently to get rid of a recurring charge from a company that just didn't understand the concept of "cancel". My bank killed that card number, issued me a new card with a new number and expiration date and the company that kept charging me sent me an email informing me that the card had been declined and if I would be so kind as to send them a card number (uhhhh.... riiiight).

All in all, I figure that saying the card was lost is the easiest way to make it impossible for anyone to ever re-use that specific credit card number.

[susandennis]

ohhhh lost is good, too. Except if they issue a new card as a replacement, I will have to kill.

And, your gorilla userpic is cracking me up.

[geordie.livejournal.com]

Report it stolen? And get your dear old mum arrested by the SWAT team specially recalled from frightening homeless people in NO?

[vasilatos]

You have an amazing tolerance for talking on the phone. I dislike talking on the phone, and when I tell people that, they tend to say "so do I" and go on talking on the phone.

It can be a great tool if you have the skill.