Well I guess you can't blame the rep for trying. He/She's probably hurting for money more than the bank. When my friend died chase tried getting his dad to pay the $1500 credit card bill. They went away after a month or so.

The rep should be drawn and quartered. That is all.

Well, I mean, it's true. But the problem is that LIVING people aren't paying debts, not dead people.

Yes, I damn well can blame them for trying. There exists a procedure for debts being paid after your death. Guilting grieving family members into ponying up? That isn't it.

What if your relative is bernie madoff?

I agree, can't blame her for trying. Recovering the debt via probate is long and costly.

But she was correct - an enormous part of the financial crises was caused precisely by bad debt and defaulted loans, just as she said. Nothing wrong with that statement.

So... families of people that know they're going to die and start spending and living like millionaires don't have to pay off their debt after they die?

@ADismalScience: True, but I definitely recall several stories where living people chose to become dead people because of their debts were spiraling out of control.

Rolcol:

I've dealt with a similar type of situation, it has nothing to do with "spending and living like millionares" and everything to do with debts in accounts that can be as small as $200 and maybe as high as $10,000+. Just your everyday average credit card or business debt. Horrible, life altering catastrophies can happen to people without a moments notice, you can't always plan for things like this.

Now if someone runs out and puts a Mercedes on their card with the knowledge that they're not going to pay it off, then BoA would and probably could pursue that.

@zarex42: Except that that isn't really the main thing that caused the financial crisis. What really caused the worst of it was the banks vastly overleveraging themselves using exotic derivatives and bundling of loans. The mortgage crisis was just the catalyst that destroyed the huge and elaborate house of cards that the bankers built.

@Rolcol: I am intrigued by this too... Do they eventually collect somehow? Does it officially have to go through some estate procedure? I cant imagine that the bank just lets these debts go. Also does anyone know the process for this in Canada? I have payed off a few relatives debts once they have passed away, I just called up the companies once I got the the bills and payed them with money from the estate, was there a different process I should have followed?

Yeah, too many people dying to get out of their bad loans.

and i am happy i am no longer with BofA cause yeah that sucks.

@Bailen:

well legally you're responsible if the person who dies has an estate left. Any debts are taken from that. If however there is no estate when that person dies, then the debt can't be collected and it's "written off" what exactly that entails, i don't know.

@jmujeff: they can only pursue that from the estate, not from the other family members

@jmujeff: how? A dead person's a dead person.

@mindchaotica:

which company has you under their illusion of 'better' then?

Since Belfast used to be one of MBNA's locations, was this a MBNA "person", or someone brought on after the switch? I can assure you that there was a definite change in personnel after the switch, especially when BA relaxed the dress code. It took less than three years for MBNA's standards/employee pride in their work to pretty much disappear.

Going through probate may be long and costly, but this isn't a small business owner trying to collect on a debt owed to her. This is a rep of a large banking company that can surely go through probate, just like everyone else, to get the money owed to them. The OP's mother died, and this rep wants to go around the system to collect money? He was smart to tell her no, and to tell her to get in line with whoever else wants to collect from the estate.

Even if what the rep said about defaulted loans may be true, it doesn't make it okay for her to say that to him when he called them to inform them his mother died. She probably should have just said to him, "I'm sorry for your loss, here is how Bank of America may go about collecting the money for this outstanding debt," and go into the probate process, or just tell him thanks for telling the bank, and to call if he has any questions.

When my first wife died, we had several credit cards. The cards we held jointly, I was jointly responsible for, and paid off. The card she held in her name, I was not responsible for. I told them she had died, and had to provide proof. Then, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office sent a letter, wanting proof that she had died to clear the debt. I found this odd as we lived in Wisconsin, and had never lived in Arizona, but the company must have had some sort of office there.

On a similar story, I had my wallet stolen, and reported my cards stolen. One card, for J.C. Penney, was used. J.C. Penney came after me for the bill. It turms out the cardf in my wallet (which I didn't use ever) was my deceased wife's card. J.C. Penney wanted proof she was dead, so I gave them the plot number in the cemetery, and told them to go collect from her. This is a company that refused to pay her life insurance policy she had paid on for ten years (I faxed a death certificate also). I still don't do business with Penney's. Companies are not your friends, but I don't understand why they have to be so cold hearted at times. It is easy to say someone is dead, but once a death certificate is presented, that should end the conversation.

i hate bank of america so much that once i hear dit costs them 1$ every time you call.. so i called them a couple times every day for a month just to attempt to hurt them. sad huh..

@Nicholas Mantzoros:
You're not responsible for people's debts unless you co-signed on the loan. The bank was wait out of line asking this. My guess is that they ask it because a few suckers pay.

The ignorance of most people about these things really makes me wish they would teach financial literacy in high school. People are too easily suckered because they simply do not understand how the process works.

Same happened to me when my mom passed away unexpectedly. Wells Fargo has taken her money and even after flying to her home branch (in another state), they still can't explain where the money went...only that it *should* be there.

@Rolcol:
The sad thing is that the credit card company is actually first in line with probate. Unsecured, incurred debts are the first to be paid from the estate.

You can live like a millionaire, whatever you like and die. But your family can't inherit anything until probate's done. Meaning that you can't take anything until debts are settled against the estate.

It is costly for companies to go through the process, which is why those with secured debts (auto & boat loans) against the estate will quickly agree to take easy turn ins or come up with an easy assumption for someone in the family to take over the loan rather than go through probate. Credit Card companies doing this are trying to save cash, time and the worry that the estate may not have anything.

But, yeah, if grandma blings out her walker and decides she's going in head-to-toe Prada and a fur-lined casket...the kids can probably kiss their college funds goodbye if she put that on Visa.

Both sides have good points. ... I had a neighbor that had a terminal illness. He got a $30,000.00 cash advance on his credit card about 4 months prior to his death. Then he went on a spending spree, buy all kinds of stuff for relatives and friends. He had nothing much in his estate. He had given most of his personal stuff away prior to his passing. When he died, the credit card company was stiffed. Do you have any questions why credit card interest rates are so high for high risk deadbeats?

Question: If I have power of attorney for my Mom's finances am I responsible for her credit card bills after her death or are the bills no longer needing to be paid?

I guess that little ole $25 billion bailout from the taxpayers didn't help BoA?

We are in the economic crisis because blind greed was allowed to run rampant and nobody stopped the fools. Heck, they are still doing is wasting stimulus money on stadium naming rights.
This just makes me want to find a financial sector CEO and beat them profusely.

@kwsventures: I have to think God frowns upon this sort of thing. It's like going on one last binge before rehab. (One last sin before the afterlife.)

@bohemian: Why change if there are no consequences?

Letting them fail would have been the best way to teach them.

@howtragic: I'm not certain this would even be covered under basic financial literacy-it's not something people face too often, so I don't blame the average person for being confused. It was very low of the CSR, who knew better, to imply otherwise.

Unless this guy's mom was a bank CEO who splurged on $50 million jets and $350,000 carpets, then no, she is not responsible for the finacial crisis. Bank of America can suck dick, eat shit, and go to hell!

Today, Chicago based La Guadalupana Wholesale Co. Inc., a 60 year old Hispanic owned company, is taking emergency legal action, in the form of a Temporary Restraining Order, against Bank of America claiming the bank has illegally and purposely damaged its business and reputation. When Guadalupana asked for a little more time to pay on a loan, BoA not only said "no," they called La Guadalupana customers to demand payment.

Bank of America = TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program)

La Guadalupana = THARD (Troubled Hispanic Assets Relief Denial)

@opsomath: Yup. One could legitimately respond "You're as legally obligated to pay this debt as I am. How do you plan on paying it?"

@Stephmo: Or she can give all her money away first, then bling herself up in head to toe prada and fur with her CC and then they are SoL.

@kwsventures: That's not risk free, of course. There are stories out there of people who were given six months to live, quit their job, went on a spending spree...and then didn't die. Oops.

@Nicholas Mantzoros:

Ah, yes. Sounds much like the conversation (and subsequent campaign of threatening and bullying) that my stepsister had with her brother's mortgage lender when she called them to explain that, what with his having committed suicide, he wouldn't be making any further payments. Lawyers had to be involved before they backed down on that one. Assholes.

@zarex42: Hey, maybe BofA should just seize the money from your bank account. Sure, they could try to recover their money legally from the person who actually owes the money, but that's so long and costly!

@Rolcol:

I have wondered about this. Do credit card companies suddenly start canceling your cards and cutting your credit lines on the grounds that "you are old" in order to minimize their risk, or what?

@savdavid: See a lawyer in your state.

@savdavid:

A Power of Attorney is only for the living. In other words, if you are POA for a relative then as long as they are alive then you can act on their behalf. After the relative dies then the POA becomes null and void. I would think that if mother's finances are in her name then you would not be liable for the debt owed after her death. Usually all you have to do is just notify the creditors that your mother has passed away and they will want you to send the death certificate as proof.

I would go into her house and take everything out of it. Strip the place of anything of value before they get their hands on it. You are already paying Bank of America anyway, YOUR tax money is going to them. So screw them. They want their money, a stripped house is all you get.

@MsAnthropy: A credit card company can't cancel your card or lower your credit line because your old - that's age discrimination.

They have to come up with a non-age-based reason to do it. Now, if you suddenly start a pattern of spending that is abnormal, they can freeze your credit line immediately to "investigate." But this is also where not using a card for a year or so is grounds for anyone to have a credit line slashed.

@dabub: As long as Grammy remembers to sign over the house too! And anything else that can be part of the estate...but I believe any last-minute shuffling of assets can be considered fraud by the probate court. So you gotta catch her a year or so out. But if you mention the fur lined coffin, I think you've got a plan. :)

@David Brodbeck: As someone who pretty much cheated death (a two-year period of 15 surgeries which I wound up in ICU twice, was fed by a feeding tube, shuffled around by seven doctors, and was told twice I had a 50-50 shot at survival), I can tell you, your mindset changes once you face extinction. I don't blame the guy at all for going out with a bang.

Thankfully, I'm beating my '2 year window' by a year, and getting healthier every day. But the world looks a helluva lot different now.

...Now those people with large credit lines that went on 'freebie' sprees right before claiming bankruptcy, knowing they couldn't pay back the bill, those we can all throw darts at.

@Russ Savage:

Why does this code popup when I want to make a commnent

@"#c10575131">Russ Savage:

@FuryOfFirestorm: Quoted For Truth!

@Russ Savage:

Well anyway. I know how you feel. I hated my cell phone company so I called them every day for almost six months yelling at them. Some times I feel like an ant. I got a some credits but basically they had just pissed me off. Yelling at whoever answered my call. I would get creative.

@slopirate:

These guys play by different rules. Get our money and still waste it on stadiums. The captin of the Titanic was still the captain even as the ship sank. I get to name the deck chairs.

@zarex42: Actually its not even to the whole truth. Bad debt and defaulted loans where part of the problem, but the financial crisis was created by greedy bank execs hoping that for every defaulted loan and bad credit line they created, 2-3 would actually pay theirs and make the bank money in interest.

Couple this with trying to hide the bad loans they did create by pawning them off with a few good loans to people who didnt know better..... AND you get why bank regulation was a good thing.... because people cant be trusted to act in the best interests of their company when their own best interests in making a huge bonus outweighs it.