Debt Becomes Her

I got a bill from a credit card company for my mom last week (she died of cancer a decade ago). I call the number.

Me: “Hi, yeah. Just calling because you sent an aggressive letter, threatening litigation for nonpayment for a credit card I tried to close right after my mom died.”

Credit Card Company: “It’s been long enough with non-payment that such a letter was necessary. We also have evidence of you evading the debt by escaping the state.”

Me: “Escaping the state?! Oh my god. You call moving, escaping the state?”

Through the increasingly unhinged call, I figure out that they had to find me because I bought a house five years ago, and my dad sold the house he owned with my mother. They did an investigation and everything.

Me: “Well, it’s not my debt, so you can stop harassing me about it.”

Credit Card Company: “Look, just pay a tiny portion of it today, less than a hundred dollars, and that will show the bank that you’re—”

Me: “—It’ll show the bank that I am assuming the debt, which I know isn’t a legal thing, but I certainly know it won’t make my case any easier. As long as I don’t pay, you can’t assume that. I didn’t take out the debt, and I cosigned nothing. Customers dying is why you guys have insurance. Either send me a subpoena or leave me alone.”

I hung up.

That was two years ago. No more calls, and definitely no subpoena.