Reader Question: Credit Card Debt Protection Program Won't Cover My Spouse's Death? - Page 2 of 2

Andrew Schrage with MoneyCrashers.com weighed in with these thoughts:

Unless she has recordings of those phone conversations, they don’t count as proof that her husband should be signed up. It sounds like she intended for both of them to sign up, but only her enrollment was actually processed. If she did it over the phone, Chase could indeed have an argument in their favor since many companies require each person to sign up individually. If he wasn’t on the phone, the customer service representative may have said that he could sign up, and then possibly sent them something in the mail for him to sign (but could not have signed him up without his approval). That’s why it’s so important when signing up for credit card protection plan debt insurance to make sure you have something in writing confirming who was signed up and when that person was approved for the insurance.

When she enrolled in the protection plan, she should have received documentation. Moreover, if she no longer has this documentation, she can request that Chase provide such copies, which should show who was properly enrolled under the plan. Ultimately, it seems entirely possible that she and her husband had a joint credit card account (which is why both of their names show up on the statements) but did not have a joint membership in the protection plan.

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Without seeing the written terms of your program, it is impossible to say whether the program you enrolled in should or shouldn’t have paid off the balance on your card when your husband died. But it is troubling that you specifically asked about joint coverage when you signed up over the phone, and did not get the coverage you thought you were getting.

The devil is usually in the details here: the fine print may contain exclusions and limitations that make it difficult to collect when benefits are needed. The GAO report found, for example, that approximately 70 percent of all benefit requests were approved in 2009, while about 24 percent were denied. It also reported that three of the largest nine issuers limited their loss-of-life balance cancellation benefit to $10,000 and three limited it to $25,000; the remaining three had no limit. In addition to the scenario Schrage described above, another possibility is that you were both “covered,” but that the program only provided limited benefits in the event of the death of one cardholder; payment suspension for four months, for example.

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As for your question about where you should turn with this problem, you may want to try reaching out to someone higher up at Chase. You can call the company’s executive customer service office: The Consumerist lists their phone number as 800-242-7399.

You can also talk with a consumer law attorney. Visit the National Association of Consumer Advocates to locate one in your area. You may also want to file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and your state attorney general. While they typically don’t assist in individual disputes, they can step in when they see a pattern of problems. The GAO Report specifically recommended that the CFPB examine these programs so it would be good for them to hear from participating consumers.