Picture this - it's the Friday before a long weekend, and I had to go to the bank to sort out some stuff before I go travelling.  Most importantly, I wanted to get an increase in my line of credit, for a number of reasons which aren't all that important.

The friendly bank rep. sits me down, pulls up my file, and says "Hrm."  One of those "hrm, that's strange" type of Hrm's. 

I can see part of the screen at this point, and I can see that there are some details that don't look right.  For one, a very old address was in there (even though I'm sure I updated this before).  When trying to correct it, some error came up.  Another "Hrm" from the rep.  Some more digging, and she finds a flag under one section that doesn't look right.

She then asks me for my ID.  Driver's license.  Bank card.  Visa card.  Health card.  Takes them all, and leaves the room.  Now, I'm worried.   Not just from the "Hrm", or even the other "Hrm", but that she's left the room, hrming, and taken any way of me proving I am who I am.

Five minutes or so pass, and I'm wondering what all the hrming was about.  The rep finally comes back in, and asks me if I have my social insurance card with me, or if I know my number.  I happily recite it.  She says, "Hrm."

She pulls up the screen with the strange flag.  There, at one point, it says "Deceased".  Yup, that's right.  Me.  Dead, kaput, kicked the bucket, passed away, done like dinner.  She then tells me she can't increase my line of credit, because I'm dead.

I was quite shocked.  I didn't feel all that dead.  And according to their records, I'd been dead 4 years.  I wish I had known that before I paid off all my debts!

So after all that, I find out I have to call the credit bureau, to clear it up - from what she could see, that's where the flag was set.  On Friday, at 5:30pm, the credit bureau is closed.  So I spent the weekend dead.  It certainly made for an interesting story (that some of my friends got to hear ad naseum.  Sorry, I just loved telling the story!).

Tuesday I was able to go to my home branch, and get the whole matter cleared up.  It turned out not to be a credit bureau problem at all, but just within my bank.  So I'm not dead anymore. 

And yes, they did finally increase my line of credit :)