CIBC You Later

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. I gave a big bank my form of revenge that was so cold, they had to defrost it.

Shortly before my Mom died a little more than four years ago, I had a terrible experience with her bank, CIBC. An employee at her local branch came right out and accused me of fraud. I had gone in with my Power of Attorney papers to have a couple of cheques made up. Mom wanted to give a couple of other people some money before she died but she was in hospice and unable to travel.

I told the story HERE but in a nutshell, the guy didn’t have sympathy for the fact that my mother was dying. Or that a long-term customer was dying. He treated me like a criminal and said horrible things about me, to me. There wasn’t a shred of evidence that I had done anything wrong because I hadn’t. And he waved away proof of my honesty.

SIDE NOTE: I called my brother, extremely upset about my treatment. He came with me for the next meeting and wouldn’t you know it? Mr. Accusations was as sweet as pie when my 6′ 4″ baby brother walked in with me!

So, I decided to sever ties with CIBC. I had only one product with them: a credit card with a lower than average interest rate and a whole lot of headroom.

I waffled and hesitated. When I got this card twenty-five years ago, it didn’t belong to CIBC. It was Capital One and then someone else took it over before CIBC. In the beginning I carried a balance, and one day I was so incensed by the size of the interest charges that I called and threatened to cut it up. In response, they cut the interest rate by a third. They would do things like that to keep you back then.

So, why did it take me four-plus years to cancel it? At first, I told myself that the huge spending limit was a fallback in case we ever found ourselves in dire straits. I’m a “look for the lifeboats on the Titanic” kind of a person. When I go to a concert, the first thing I do is take note of the exits. It’s just how I’m wired.

Then there was the interest rate. While I no longer carry a balance, it was a pretty attractive aspect of the card.

Then Something Happened

Earlier this year I used the card to purchase something major online at a mom-and-pop retailer in Toronto. Within a couple of days there were scads of attempts to purchase three things: CNE tickets, Best Buy cards, and travel vouchers. I called CIBC and they canceled the card. A new one arrived and that’s when I made my move. I didn’t activate it.

I knew I had to wait for a couple of payment cycles before shutting the whole thing down, so I did. When I called to cancel, they asked me why. I told them it was because of the employee in Smithville from four years ago. It just took me a while to get around to it.

They’ve opened an investigation into my reason for closing my account. I expect it will be about as useful as the one I opened four years ago. Other employees heard how the guy spoke to me. There was clearly no wrongdoing on my part. And all that happened was the branch manager took over managing my mom’s estate.

People who have dealt with other big banks during the death of a loved one tell me this isn’t unusual. Bank employees have acted like assholes to them with no reason, too. Yes, there are people who take advantage of incapacitated relatives but it’s easy to determine who is and who isn’t breaking the law. The loss of a parent is enough to deal with. No one needs groundless accusations piled on top.