SPOKANE, Wash. — A Spokane man is 'back from the dead' after a credit card company declared him dead.
Steve Hanna reached out to KREM to resurrect him in the eyes of credit card companies, credit bureaus and banks.
It all started when Hanna's mom died in 2017. He is the executor of her estate and went to close her financial accounts. Somehow during the process, Hanna himself had been declared dead by the credit card company. He's been stressed out about it ever since.
"A loss of sleep, the inability to eat. I mean I haven't been completely unable to eat but it's wearing on me," Hanna said. "I have lost 15 pounds over the last two months."
It came to light several months ago when he tried opening a new checking account.
"And the guy behind the desk says, 'Well, my computer says you're dead,'" Hanna explained.
How did this happen?
In early 2017, Hanna's mother passed away.
"I was named the executor of the estate. I'm the eldest of three children and began the procedures, closing out her credit cards, the water and electric and all that stuff," Hanna said. "Closed Capital One's account, her Capital One card. In doing that required, of course, my personal information. Letters testamentary, assignment from the court, all the legal paperwork which I shuffled right off to them."
Fast forward several months and Hanna gets a letter from Capital One.
"Dear Estate of Stephen Hanna. There is no Estate of Stephen Hanna. Please accept our condolences for the loss of Stephen P. Hanna," the letter said.
Hanna said he called the company a dozen times and wrote three letters.
"No one will believe me. No one will respond even to it," he said.
He can't open a checking account and worries it'll be hard to convince prospective employers he's truly a guy with a beating heart.
"I have no recourse, basically," Hanna explained.
Unfortunately, Capital One's news of Steve's death made its way to his credit report. When you look up his credit report from Equifax it shows N/A.
KREM's Jane McCarthy steps in to help
Hannah contacted KREM 2 investigators for help in October.
KREM called and emailed Capital One. It took a few phone calls and emails before KREM got a woman who said she'd help.
“And sure enough, within a week, I actually got a real human being from Capital One to call me back. First time in months," Hanna said.
With that underway, KREM worked with Hanna to tackle the credit bureaus, too. Letters were written to Equifax and Experian to get the ball rolling. A little more than a month after KREM got involved, Capital One made good on their promise. They had revived Hanna in their own system and with the credit bureaus.
"Oh yes, I'm back in the land of the living," Hanna exclaimed. “I may stop getting letters from funeral companies saying you need a plot."
Why Hanna was declared dead
After investigating the issue, KREM learned that it was one little stamp originally sent Hanna plunging into Capital One's dead file.
"The cause was, believe it or not, one single bill accidentally stamped deceased returned to them in the mail, by the post office," Hanna explained. “But Capital One, and they admitted this, did nothing to verify it. No confirmation, no death certificate, no notification, not even a phone call to my estate to see if I was really dead. No, they just immediately bing, bang, boom, I'm dead and they go tell the credit bureaus who in turn tell the banks."
Back from the dead
Finally, Hanna’s stress about his bogus and untimely death can be put to rest.
"Absolutely and if it wasn't for you, nobody would have listened," he said.
Hanna is back at full steam now with a story, and a memento, to share.
"This is the hilarious letter I'm going to frame. Addressed to me, to the estate of Stephen P. Hanna. consoling me on the loss of Stephen P. Hanna, which is me," he laughed.
Here's to wishing Hanna a long and full life with his credit card companies and otherwise.
"I'm just going to make darn sure that everything that has my name on it now I monitor constantly," Hanna said.
