Here is an interesting collection story from the other side of the ocean.
Kenneth Harkins had a mobile phone and paid about $13.50 per month. But Harkins, who is 88 and suffers from dementia, stopped using his phone. When his family tried to cancel the contract, they were not able to, because they did not know the password that Harkins put on his account when he signed the agreement. Harkins could not remember the password either.
Unable to cancel the contract, Harkins’s family instead stopped the automatic withdrawal of the $13.50 from Harkins’s bank account. The carrier then sent a collection agency after the unpaid debt, which amounted to about $55.
After taking to Twitter to complain to the carrier, the carrier “looked into” the situation and “as a gesture of goodwill,” canceled the unpaid debt and the contract.
Despite the outrageousness of the situation, the story serves as a cautionary tale for anyone on either side of a unpaid debt. It’s incredibly important to have plans and safeguards in place so that individuals can look after the financial affairs of aging family members and friends, and there should be some mechanism for getting around the need for a password in order to conduct financial transactions.
