My Discover discovery

There is a lot to do after someone dies.  Sometimes it can be cleansing; throwing away the expired food items from 2010 that she insisted were fine.  Sometimes it is magical; discovering hidden gems from my childhood.  Sometimes it is sad; pictures.  Mostly it is overwhelming, and at times frustrating.  When my mother first decided she was finished fighting and asked for hospice to be called I immediately did a web search on what to do after someone dies.  I suppose that seems cold and calculating, but with my mother that was regarded as a smart move.  We had talked throughout her last few years off and on about her death and what would be expected.  We had googled this information previously many times.  I suppose, sitting in the hospital, it gave me something to do.

After she died I went back to those sites that I had searched that day and made a list.  That list went with the list from the cremation society and both those lists were added to the list from the lawyer.  Trying to keep tabs on all of the lists, as well as on the mounds of paperwork, has been a chore.  I now carrying a briefcase and a bag and have since purchased a plastic container and a file box.  Each day I try to mark an item off of the list.

One of the items on the list was to call the credit card companies and alert them to the death.  One of the cards was used to pay several monthly bills that made it easier for her to deal with while in and out of hospitals and rehab and nursing facilities.  Our lawyer suggested that we contact the bank of this card, Chase, and explain to them the situation in the hope that we could add our names to the card to keep the status quo.  She figured that it wouldn't be a problem since we would be taking on the responsibility of paying off the current debt.  She could not have been more wrong.

I went into a Chase bank, and while their waiting area is welcoming with baskets of lollipops and an array of coffees, their employees were not.  We saw only three of them; one of them on the phone, one behind the teller counter, and one who sighed as we entered and told us someone would be right with us.  He disappeared for a moment into a door and must have drawn the short straw because he reappeared and asked us into his cubicle.  We should have read the stale lollipops and empty coffee urns as a sign and hightailed it to another branch, but it was raining and we were tired from the entire week, and so we sat down with the gentleman.  Who somewhat angrily told us that my request was absurd, adding a scenario about a dead brother with good credit and another deadbeat brother who had no credit, but was trying to piggyback off his dead brother.  I cut him off in the middle of that tale and explained that I understood what he was saying, that this situation was different, but he wanted no part of it.  He didn't believe me.  In his eyes, without asking if I had a Chase account of my own (I do), or asking me to write a check for the debt right then and there, I was scheming to get a credit card.

He picked up the phone and called corporate for advice.  Corporate moved him to the estate department who asked to speak to me, and suddenly I went from one unkind Chase employee to another.  The woman on the other end of the phone offered her condolences on the loss of my mother, and then immediately went into a dissertation on how she was closing the account, type, type, type, and how Chase would be coming after the estate for payment.  Those were her words, "We will be coming after the estate for payment of this credit card" as if she hadn't heard a word I had been saying about making the payment.  When I tried to explain my situation and that I just wanted to remain in the current situation, paying off the balance each month, she treated me as if I were a thief, despite the legal paperwork I had sitting before the Chase employee who was now tapping his fingers on his desk and staring into space.  By the time the phone conversation was finished I was a criminal in her eyes and she was the law and thank god she was on the job.  "Again," she said, "sorry about your loss.  Have a nice day."

We left the Chase bank and drove less than a mile down the street to Bank of America to tackle my mother's bank account, and by the time we were seated there the Chase phone lady had alerted the bank to the death and a freeze was placed on the account.  My experience at that bank was only slightly better and will make for another blog entry, but I ended up breaking down into tears there.  It was not a good day.

Fast forward to yesterday, a little over a week since the Chase experience.  I was emptying out my mother's purse and wallet and realized after coming across her Discover card that I had never alerted them to her death.  Taking a deep breath, I dialed the number and got Tim.  Tim apologized for my mother's death as if he had something to do with it and transferred me to the estate department and Able, who also was very sorry for my loss. He could not have been more different then the Chase employee.  First he explained to me that my mother was the only name on the card holder and thus the only one responsible for payment.  He said that Discover would not expect payment from the estate for such a small amount.  He went over the last statement with me and again reiterated that I was not responsible for paying the bill.  He was kind and helpful and made me want to send a check to Discover right then and there.  He was exactly what someone who has lost a family member needs when dealing with problems.  When I hung up I wanted to shout from the rooftops, "EVERYONE GO OUT AND GET A DISCOVER CARD BECAUSE THEY CARE!" Guess which bill I'm going to be paying?