Wells Fargo Bank Left Hand? Right Hand? Doh! Phoenix Arizona

 I live in Arizona. I own my own home. I am retired and I receive Social Security. My wife still works and we live mostly off her income for now. I have had my accounts at Wells-Fargo and its predecessors since 1983.

 Wells-Fargo is also the trustee for our mortgage. A year ago I was at our local branch of Wells-Fargo and one of the bankers suggested that I should open a credit card account that would earn cash-back points that would be applied to the principal of our mortgage. I opened the account but was surprised at the measly $1,000 credit limit. That seemed pretty small considering that we own about 55% of the equity in our home.

 Recently we were put in an awkward position by the death of my brother. He left few assets, the most valuable of which is a motorhome sitting in Florida. My brother parked his motorhome several years ago and it has not been driven in at least three years. Even so, its value is somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000. Ownership of this vehicle has passed to me and I now need to travel to Florida to retrieve it. Due to another obligation, we have little cash on hand so I decided to see if I could raise my credit limit enough to finance my trip to Florida. What a waste of time that was.

 First, I went to the branch where I had opened the credit card account. The greeter there told me that they were short-staffed that day and that all they would do anyway is to call the toll-free number on the back of the card, which I could do myself. So I called the 800 number from home.

 The person I spoke to asked a number of questions. His first question was, “Do you rent or own?” This is the very same bank that holds my mortgage. This is the same credit card that is supposed to be providing cash-back to lower my mortgage balance. Why is this idiot even asking this question? How could he not have this information in front of him?

 Later he asked about my income. I told him my Social Security income and then gave him my wife's income, too. He claimed that he could not consider my wife's income because only my name was on the account. Guess what? Arizona is a community-property state. My wife's income is my income and “my” debts are both our debts. With only a few exceptions, there is no distinction in this state between a husband's income and debts and the wife's. Why does this idiot on the phone not know that? What was Wells-Fargo thinking by putting this moron on the phone to speak for their company to their customers? One of us is stupid and it is not me.

 In the end they did raise my limit to a whopping $1,300. Gee, thanks.