Haunted by Ghosts of Credit Cards Past

The only thing that feels better than paying of a credit card is calling the 1-800 number, sitting on the phone for half-an-hour and closing the account.

It feels so final — the ultimate closure. That is, until you realize you card has been reactivated without your approval.

This happened to us this week. One of the first credit cards we paid off and closed was my wife’s Bank of America card. She did everything right, including a request to have a letter indicating the account is closed.

Nearly a year later, we receive a bill! But this account was paid in full and closed! As it turns out, my wife is a member of a professional association that bills its members annually. In our looser and darker days of credit, she set up this payment to be drawn from her B of A card. When B of A received the charge, they took it upon themselves to re-open an account that was closed rather than deny the charge.

But wait, isn’t that unethical and perhaps even mildly illegal to open an account without your explicit approval? It’s certainly unethical. I’m not sure of the legal ramifications because B of A could argue that it’s an account that was previously open, and they might have some 6-point font legalese that states if we charge to the account they’ll re-open it, but it is unsettling to know that these closed accounts are one mis-charge away from being re-opened.

The Wife quickly called the professional association who agreed to reverse the charge and use our business debit card instead. She also had to call and re-cancel the stupid credit card with B of A.

Far be it from me to play the victim card and demand retribution (I’m way too conservative to pull that), so my goal is to see what lessons I can harvest from this character-building experience:

1. Stay away from borrowed money and those who lend it. Recurring theme on this blog? You bet! Let’s face it. If we didn’t think it was so sophisticated to use plastic to begin with this situation would’ve never come up.
2. Know and track every expense, no matter how infrequently it’s paid. Things can and do fall through the cracks, but keeping a good log of expenses will prevent this from happening. The best thing I can advise is this: When you start up a new infrequently-paid expense, put it in your budget and spread it out over the next several months. This is a constant reminder that a) you have to account for this expense again, and b) you know how you’re going to pay for it.
3. Keep tabs on your credit report. Doing this won’t prevent a mis-charge from happening, and I’m never a proponent for worshiping at the altar of FICO, but this is a good tool to keep tabs on old accounts that you’ve closed. If you see one reappear, then you know something is up.

This was a quick fix in  the end, but so much could’ve gone wrong.

What about you? Has something like this happened to you? Do you have any bad experiences with credit cards?

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