Money Management and Your Aging Parent

Many of our depression-era parents are extremely frugal. They use duct tape to repair items or discontinue use of appliances rather than replacing them. On the other hand, some loosen their guarded nature regarding finances and spend without thinking of the consequences. Lonely widows and widowers and the hard-of-hearing are likely prey for telemarketers. And mail order catalogues, TV shopping networks, and mail or telephone solicitations for charities can also spell budget-busting problems for our aging parents. To protect your loved one, it is important to communicate concern without belittling their intelligence.

There are some things going on that I was surprised at. My mother, age 86, got her phone bill from Verizon and it was $53 more than normal. She caught it right away. I called them and they told me that it was a charge from another company. I think it was eon or something like that.

Verizon actually bills for other companies through Verizon's billing system. They would do nothing about it so I had to call Eon. Get this...it was for a website set up. My mother has no computer and wouldn't even know how to turn it on if she had on. They told me that I would have to pay it and then they would repay her.

I told them that they are a scam company. They said that they called her and she bought in to the program. I absolutely know that that was not true as Mom hangs up on ALL sales type calls. There is nothing wrong with her mind.

I told them that they scammed her and I would not pay it. They finally agreed to take it off her bill. I had to call Verizon back and they finally took it off from their end. I found out that they bill for many companies.....but, the good part is that you can put a block on all other billing other than Verizon charges. BEWARE....you might want to put a block on your phone bill.

Indeed.

My father’s oldsmobile seems to need constant, expensive attention, according to his local car-repair shop manager.

My father likes the guy because he calls him “sir” and has a brush-cut (important for an old Navy man!)

Worst scam every tried on our parents was from an AC company. My FIL called to say they were having a new AC put in the next day (to the tune of 2500 bucks.) We asked why and they said a firm had called them and offered a free AC check. When they came out they found “all kinds of problems” and recommended a system be installed the very next day.

We knew it was a scam, but my in-laws had no idea and wouldn’t believe us when we told them it was a scam. So my husband called a buddy who was an AC contractor, and they went over that night, checked out the unit and it was in perfect shape. My husband called up the company the next day, cancelled the work order, read them the riot act, and then we sent a report to the BBB.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.