Saturday, March 29, 2014

ANGRY WIDOW

Bank of America turned off my Hawaiian Air VISA.

My philosophy is to charge everything over $10.  The bill is paid off every month and the miles for free trips add up.  Flying back and forth to Maui twice a year is my benefit!

Apparently, I am merely an "authorized user" not a co-applicant.  Because I was a full time homemaker, whenever I opened an account, Ralph had the income.  Who knew his death would diminish my finances?  I am the one who set up the online account, banished paper statements and paid the bill in full each month.  I am the one who made any phone calls and changed the address from Oregon to Hawaii and back.  It is MY email to which they correspond.

It started last week when I got an email saying the account ending in XXXX will no longer be allowed to pay e-bills.  Well, no biggie ... this was the old account that was closed (several years ago!) when I misplaced my card.  I figured they were finally cleaning up their accounting.  


Yesterday I went online to check charges  (I check through Mint.com which told me they were having trouble and I needed to go directly to BofA site to "fix it.")  Which led to two hours on the phone when I couldn't access my account.  First it was customer service.  She sent me to account management.  He sent me to technical support (mind you none of these people could see that the account was closed!!!) who finally sent me to the estate department.  All of this while the three year old played trucks and workers around me feet.

I suppose the other cards will eventually do the same.  Thankfully, I recently applied (and was approved) for a BofA ALASKA AIR VISA, in my own name, which was approved and I have a very small limit.  So far, I'm paying it off twice a month just to be able to use it as much as I want to.  I currently have no income which makes creditors a bit leery to give me a charge card!!

After I finally hung up, I had a little cry.  Beyond awkward, I'm angry!  Braeden looked up at me and said "JB Gramma, you missing Poppa?".  Yep.  I sure am.

P.S.  In the day's mail was a notice saying this VISA account is being sold to Barclay's Bank!!!  And another mailing containing two credit cards, with a limit of $35,000.  From Bank of America!!!

Go figure!

3 comments:

  1. I had the same thing happen with my Master Card. I'd been a co-dependent for decades but that wasn't good enough. I had to apply to assume full owner ship of that account but in the meantime I couldn't use it.It took four weeks! In the meantime I had all my medications and re-occurring bills on that card and had to switch them to another card.

    I understand why they have to take dead people off cards and make the co-applicant reapply under their own credit ratings but they could do a better job of working things out with widows. Once you get this card straighten out, do go ahead and one by one get Ralph's name off the others.

    P.S. I wrote a post about this very thing, too. We widows are all so sadly predictable in our widow woes!

    ReplyDelete
  2. God, that brings back the many indignities that transitioning to a solo life includes. Maybe you can retrieve your late husband's frequent flyer points, transferring them over to your own HA frequent flyer number. I did so with my late husband's American Airline points, after supplying his death certificate and paying a small fee. Those points enabled a couple free flights for me, much appreciated. Good luck, and hang in there.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That was the worst part! I could NOT transfer his 300,000 miles!!! They disappear upon death and cannot be called an asset in divorce. So he has happily given me many first class trips back and forth the past 12 months. Just booked the last one! My oh my first class is easier!!!

    ReplyDelete

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