When you have an account with a bank, you need to make sure you follow all the right steps to pay it off and close it out.

What would you do if the bank kept saying you owed money, and even tried to make you pay late penalties, on a home equity loan that had long since been closed (and you didn’t even own the home anymore)?

That is what happened to the customer in this story, so she threatened to use the account even though she didn’t own the home or have other accounts with the bank, so they would be unable to collect.

Check it out.

Cutting through the Banks Red Tape

So, this happened many years ago.

I owned a house and wanted to do a bit of remodeling, so I took out a small home equity loan ($10k).

I ended up getting a new job a few hours away during the remodel and needed to sell the house.

I finished the remodel quickly and got the house sold. Everything went well at closing and a portion of the proceeds went to finish off the home equity loan and close the account.

I know all the appropriate paperwork was done as I played a part in submitting it to get done.

Also, it’s my understanding that you can’t actually sell a house that still has a lien against it so I would think that would cause a problem during closing.

Anyway, fast forward about a year and I get a bill from the bank that gave me the home equity loan for $50 to keep the account open.

I contacted them, told them the situation and they say “No problem. Just fax us some paperwork and we’ll close the account.”

Easy enough, hopefully that will be the end of it.

I think, “Ok, no big deal” and do it.

The next month I get another letter saying that I still owed $50 and here are some late fees too. I call them up again and we basically go through the same thing.

They claimed they had no record of me calling or receiving the fax.

I asked that they ensure they saved notes about this call and that I would send the fax right away and to look for it.

The next month rolls around and sure enough I get another letter. I call again and get the SAME SPILL! “I’m sorry Sir, we have no record of your call.”

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?! This time I am recording the call myself and I follow their requirements to the letter to get this sorted out. I make sure I get the confirmation receipt printed off the fax machine when I send it, showing that it was received by the banks fax machine.

I also follow up with them and they confirm they actually received it. And…a few weeks later…another bill…with more fees…

Sometimes just being in front of a person can help.

Having had enough, I went to a local branch.

I knew they couldn’t actually do anything, but figured if I was in front of someone, maybe they would have a bit of extra pull to get it sorted out. I walk in and meet an extremely nice fellow, we’ll call him John, who I relayed the entire story to and informed him I had a large amount of evidence proving that I had attempted to cancel this loan.

John, as expected explained that he couldn’t do anything himself, but he would be more than willing to call them back with me in his office.

The people on the other end actually had the nerve to tell John and myself the same story! “I’m sorry sir, we have no record of you ever calling.”

John informed them that not only did I call, but I had plenty of evidence showing that I had called and had faxed them what they needed.

Apparently this may them a bit more compliant and offered to drop the fees if I paid them the $50 for the loan I didn’t want.

John is almost as frustrated as her.

After a lot more back and forth about not paying at all and how the loan was cancelled now about a year and a half ago, I was done.

Poor John had no idea how else he could help and the lady on the other end was not having any of it.

Now, before I walked in to the bank, I already had an idea in my head but never figured I’d actually have to play this card.

I breathed a bit to reduce my blood pressure and calmly stated, “So, if I understand you correctly, if I pay this $50 right now, I will have unlimited access to 10 THOOOOUUUUSAND DOLLARS that is secured by a house that I do not own, from a bank that I have no other accounts with? Is that what you are saying?”

He just loved this!

John nearly falls out of his chair at this revelation and is doing his best to not let the lady on the other end hear his tears of laughter.

There is nothing but silence from her end, apparently she did not find this idea amusing at all.

After quite some time of silence, she finally came back with a very terse, “Your account has been closed.”

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We politely thank her and hang up. John thanks me profusely for allowing him to be a part of it.

Apparently it made his week to see the corporate drones get a small reality check.

And no, I never received another bill from them.

Well played, sometimes you have to be creative to show someone the light.

Let’s see what the people in the comments say about this fun story.

This person thinks there should be stronger laws.

Banks don’t always make sense.

Flood them with faxes.

Certified mail is the best way.

No surprise here.

Banks can be shady sometimes.

Most of the time, actually.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.