Business as UNusual

It took several years of aggravatingly hard work, but I have pretty much cleared up all the financial complexities that face the wife of a man who becomes mentally disabled and who, because of the encroaching disability which is not recognized at first, has gotten into lots of, well, financial complexities.

That is - except for the outstanding credit card that was still in Vince's name. He's had the card for 18 years, and for the past several years I have been authorized to use the card. HOWEVER, when I wanted to cancel the card because we don't need it anymore and haven't used it in years, the credit card company (ccc) would not do it without Vince's personal permission. I tried to explain to them that he was mentally disabled and speaking to him would yield no response from him, but that is the only way they would cancel the card.

So, after receiving several renewals of this card, today I decided to buckle down and play the game with the ccc. I got phone extensions for Vince and myself, called the ccc, went through the exhaustive menu until reaching a person. She confirmed that she would in fact need to speak to Vince and offered her condolences to me that he was ill. She asked Vince if he gave permission to cancel the card - of course he did not answer, so I had to keep saying "Just say YES." Finally he said "YES", which was all they needed. Done! But not so fast.......

The ccc rep politely explained to me that cancelling after such a long inactive period could harm Vince's credit report - even though we have perfect credit and the card was always paid off on time. What I think is that that was a ploy to get me to keep using the card. The rep tried several other ploys to get me to keep the card, like if I get to my limit on my other cards, I'd still have this one. No thank you, I said. I can't spend that much money.

I've gone through this charade before with Medicare and other companies that insist on speaking to Vince. I can understand that they are just protecting him, but on the other hand, who's to know if I just get another man to stand in for Vince on the phone?

Just another ridiculous hoop for the well spouse to jump through!! Keeps us in shape, right?