American Impress credit card Essay

1. Betty is married to Abel, a successful engineer. They have a joint account which gives them both an American Impress credit card, which they have had for years. They have always made the payments on time and over the years the credit limit has gone up and up. Abel has a skiing accident and dies. A month later, Betty gets a notice that her American Impress card has been cancelled. To make matters worse, the fact that her card has been cancelled is reported to a credit reporting company, which hurts Betty’s credit score and makes it harder for her to get credit. Does the law provide any protections for Betty? What can she do? No, the law does not provide protection for Betty because when a credit card account is a joint account and one spouse dies, the responsibility of handling that account will fall on the surviving party. Betty can protect herself by contacting the credit card company, or pay off the balance on the credit card account and close it, or transfer the account to her name and pay off the remaining balance. If she decides to transfer the account to her name, the credit card company may alter the terms of the original agreement. 2. An elderly lady with poor health and poor eyesight is approached by a door to door salesman. He tells her that if she buys a sectional greenhouse from his company, she can make lots of money raising and selling flowers. She gives him a check for several thousand dollars, way more than she can afford, and signs a contract promising to make monthly payments. He delivers to her house a bunch of greenhouse sections, which have to be assembled. Can she get out of the contract and get her money back? Are there other facts which if known would help you answer this question? No, she cannot get out of the contract if she meets the three main elements that are needed for a contract to be enforceable, they are: Offer: Which must be clearly stated and presented to the offered, this can be in either an oral or written form. Acceptance: Acceptance must be acceptance for the exact offer which was stated, any deviation may count as a counter offer and lead to the contract being unenforceable Consideration: Something of value given by both parties to a contract that induces them to enter into the agreement to exchange mutual performances. There are also other elements to a legally binding contract such as expressed and implied terms of the contract. Implied terms can consist of terms implied by law e. g. The Statute of Frauds requires the sale of land to be in writing etc. , these laws change from jurisdiction to jurisdiction so you would have to contact an attorney in your area to find out more. For a contract to be concluded, performance must be followed down to the letter of what was contracted for, courts give very little leniency in this area. It’s also worth checking out the law surrounding Duress, Misrepresentation and Undue Influence to fully cover you in the event of a breach by either party.