| BANKS – Before being responsible, one needs to use ones brain |
Banks are not very close to real life. When people live and get into trouble with their payments because they have an accident, loose their job or run into divorce the banks immediately recognise that not you but they have a problem: the call it "non-performing loans". In German it is even worse: the call it "credit in need" (notleidender Kredit) and not "customer in need").
But this is nothing compared what banks think when you die. They try everything to let only one half of you enter the cemetery. They want to keep the debtor alive forever. This for example is the case when they tell the widow with her orphans that she now has to pay the instalment of her husband’s debt withholding the truth that nobody is forced to inherit the debts of others. But if they cannot find anybody who they made sign the contract in case the debtor dies then they at least want to punish people for their death. If for example you got one of this usurious credit life insurances and you dare to die (what only 2000 per annum out of a few million insured dare) then mortgage banks charge an early (!) repayment charge, if they sold a combined endowment credit then some even cancel the credit and refund only part of your capital life insurance leaving the children and relatives with an even higher debt.
The following story tells us about the credit card industry whose humanistic ethics we know from churning and flipping, from revolving and high interest rates for the poor. Their machinery seems to run really smoothly when no customer exists any longer who can contradict. Here is the story from a website:
Note: (we have not verified the validity of this call)
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A lady died this past January, and ANZ bank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her credit card, and then added late fees and interest on the monthly charge. The balance had been $0.00, now it is somewhere around $60.00.
A family member placed a call to the ANZ Bank:
Family Member:
'I am calling to tell you that she died in January.'
ANZ:
'The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply.'
Family Member:
'Maybe, you should turn it over to collections.'
ANZ:
'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?'
ANZ:
'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?'
ANZ:
'Excuse me?'
Family Member:
'Did you just get what I was telling you . . . The part about her being dead?'
ANZ:
'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 January.'
ANZ:
'The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply.'
Family Member:
'You mean you want to collect from her estate?'
ANZ:
(Stammer) 'Are you her lawyer?'
Family Member:
'No, I'm her great nephew.'
(Lawyer info given)
ANZ:
'Could you fax us a certificate of death?'
Family Member:
'Sure.'
(fax number is given )
After they get the fax:
ANZ:
'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.'
ANZ:
'Well, the late fees and charges do still apply.'
Family Member:
'Would you like her new billing address?'
ANZ:
'That might help.'
Family Member:
' Rookwood Memorial Cemetery , 1249 Centenary Rd, Sydney Plot Number 1049.'
ANZ:
'Sir, that's a cemetery!'
Family Member:
'Well, what the **** do you do with dead people on your planet?'
What we can learn from it? We should try to send some people into this machinery who know something about real life. |
| ID: |
40718 |
| Author(s): |
SCR |
| Publication date: |
19/11/07 |
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Created: 20/12/07. Last changed: 20/12/07.
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