topic Bereavement in Help and Support in Plusnet Feedback

Bereavement in Help and Support

Oldjim — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 12:11:34 GMT

The only option seems to be cancellation but a more common request would seem to be transferring the account to the surviving partner

Could this be made more specific

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

glloyd — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 12:57:57 GMT

Must be possible with a bit of effort.

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

shutter — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 13:03:29 GMT

@Oldjim a good point .....

@glloyd why should it need " a bit of effort".... it should be made easy to do this....

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

jaread83 — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 13:22:54 GMT

I thought there may have been at least something in the Help and Support pages. The closest thing I could find was by searching bereavement into the search and it returns this:

I will raise this internally to be looked into further as I would have thought there would be more information available about this in the legal section somewhere in the T&Cs or somewhere else.

And Jim, if this is something you are having to deal with personally - I am sorry for your loss.

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

Oldjim — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 14:03:37 GMT

I am not but I remember several posts about transferring the account and being advised that it could only be done after bereavement so I thought I would check

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

Pete11 — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 14:36:21 GMT

There is also a 'knock-on' effect to this.

The actual account (in our household) is in the partners name (she signed up for it), but, it is me who pays the bill through direct debit from my bank account. In the event of anything happening to either one of us, then surely the account would transfer to the survivor, or have I got it wrong? Also being as we are not actually married, what would happen? Would it transfer over for the remainder of the contract?.

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

jaread83 — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 14:44:53 GMT

I have raised this internally so that we can get some guidelines about this onto our Help pages. @Pete11, I am afraid that I can't answer that question as I am not in the Customer Services department and don't know what those procedures would be. Hopefully a staff member will notice this topic and be able to provide some information about that.

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

Alex — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 17:19:48 GMT

@Pete11, I am so sorry to hear of your news. Hopefully you’ll get through it, but they way I look at it (when it happened to me). You won’t, of course and have to live a different life to the one what you wanted.

Happy to help if I can, I can’t say I know it all. I could say my experience, but it is not forum friendly reading, so feel free to PM me.

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

Pete11 — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 19:12:11 GMT

@Alex

I think maybe I could I have put my comment better. Nothing has happened, I was just asking out of curiosity, you know, should circumstances like that occur. All is fine in the Pete11 household.

@jaread83

Thanks for that and it would be nice to get some sort of clarification on the matter.

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

Alex — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 09:11:26 GMT

Ok @Pete11

Sorry it is a bit of a touchy subject for me, having gone through it.

Glad to hear everything is fine your end

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

wisty — Sat, 07 Oct 2017 11:10:41 GMT

@Pete11 wrote:

There is also a 'knock-on' effect to this.

In the event of anything happening to either one of us, then surely the [bank] account would transfer to the survivor, or have I got it wrong? Also being as we are not actually married, what would happen?

My understanding is that if the bank account in question is a joint account, then it transfers over to the survivor (married or not).

If on the other hand the account is in your sole name, then the account is not transferrable. The account is closed and the money transferred to the executors of the will in an executor account from where they can give it to whoever is supposed to get it. Direct Debits on the original account will stop.

Without a will there are fairly strict rules about who should get the money and unmarried partners don't currently appear in the list and will get nothing.

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

Pete11 — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 10:03:06 GMT

@wisty

Yes I fully understand how the banks work, but it doesn't answer what happens to the PN account.

My partner is the PN account holder as it was her that signed up, and it's me who pays for the account by direct debit. Now, if anything happens to me then what happens to PN account? After all, it would seem heartless sending her emails or making phone calls about a payment not being made right at the time when she could well do without it.

So, does the payment and PN account close?...or does she get in touch with PN to see if there is a transfer of payments from her bank account without starting another contract?

There should be some sort of clarification on the boards or in the help files to cover such things, yet I have found none.

Can someone from PN care to clarify things?

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

Mav — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 10:08:02 GMT

In the situation you mention above as the account holder I would assume your partner can just set up a new DD from her own account which will supersede your DD instruction.

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

Oldjim — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 10:10:59 GMT

With respect to joint bank accounts everything should transfer over to the survivor including direct debits and that seems to work for every other company except Plusnet who insist on a new direct debit being set up (from memory of several complaining posts in the past) and that won't change until the new accounts system happens at some unknown time in the future

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

Pete11 — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 10:27:31 GMT

@Mav Thanks for clearing that up, it'll give her some peace of mind

I'm sure though that things like this should be made clearer either on the boards or 'sticky' somewhere so that others can get some guidance.

@Oldjim So as things stand at the minute with PN, she'll just have to set up her own DD and things should just run as normal?

(mind you, it depends how you define 'normal'). By the way it's not a joint bank account.

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

Alex — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 11:30:15 GMT

When it happened to me, hopefully this will be of use to someone:

We had to go a library for the death certificate, I think you get one free and pay around £4 for each additional original you want. We just went for 10, and paid £35ish for the other 9.

My mum and dad had a joint bank account. So for people who do, we just wrote to the bank enclosing an original certificate. This was Lloyds, but I assume its similar for other banks. The posted the certificate back and changed the account into a single account (sent a new cheque book with just my mum's name on it).

The BT account was in my dads name so we phoned them to change it to mums. Luckily (and thank you to the Community Forums as I wouldn't be aware of this), I was a bit worried as I read years ago changing name would kill the broadband? I enquired about this on the phone and they said it wouldn't and luckily it hadn't. Maybe times have changed now.

PlusNet account is in my name, and I haven't changed it as no need really. Direct Debit is to their account, as I get to do the IT stuff round there and it was me who applied for it as I was living there at time. I've got a year in mind That long ago.

Had to help arrange a funeral - not nice. Won't go into detail but happy to talk on PM's about it. Should keep that off forum I think as it is not nice/family friendly to be on forum to be honest.

Can't think of anything else to say at moment. It's not a nice thing to think about I know and not the most pleasant reading, but it something that comes up you just have to deal with. Then you naturally get nervous (as you do with anything you haven't done before) as to whether you're doing it right. I was, I assume the OP is too when starting this thread.

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

WS1990 — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 02:03:29 GMT

On the other hand I am indirectly affected as a relative by marriage has died (who had a PN broadband service) and consequently a direct family member will need to sort out things.

What progress has been, made? is the help item mentioned all that there is?!

Regards

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 07:40:05 GMT

If an account is held in a single name, when the executor contacts the account/utility/service provider then you will almost always find that from the instant you mention "died" that the account is immediately closed, and from that moment on you are starting a NEW provision of the utility/service, or in the case of a financial account it is locked until either a will or grant of representation can be produced.

You have to be really careful when dealing with landline accounts, as BT (for example) will transfer the account to the spouse only by a cease and re-provide !. Therefore there are costs with "cease" and "provide", and there is a small risk you could lose your telephone number if the process has any hiccups.

Because the surviving spouse is now on a new provision, BT will lock you into a new 12/18/24 month contract, which you might not want if for example you need to sell the house to pay inheritance tax, etc.

Fortunately with landline and broadband, there is now the simple solution of "gaining provider led" migration.

The easiest solution is to find another provider that suits your ongoing needs, contract or not, and simply ask them to migrate the service associated with the telephone number, to yourself (the new account holder) using your bank/card details for payments. There is no need for the existing broadband/telephone provider to communicate with the account holder (i.e. the deceased), and a migration should be less problematic than a cease/re-provide.

Another tip, migrate the telephone/broadband service BEFORE you tell the deceased bank, so that the final bill on the service gets paid before the bank account gets locked from making payments, otherwise you may get threatening letters because the final bill was unpaid because the direct debit was cancelled, and an associated black mark on the credit score at your address.

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

newagetraveller — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 10:03:58 GMT

"and an associated black mark on the credit score at your address."

Just to be clear on this. Any "black mark" is not associated with an address, only to an individual.

Re: Bereavement in Help and Support

Townman — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 10:23:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

If an account is held in a single name, when the executor contacts the account/utility/service provider then you will almost always find that from the instant you mention "died" that the account is immediately closed, and from that moment on you are starting a NEW provision of the utility/service, or in the case of a financial account it is locked until either a will or grant of representation can be produced.

IIRC this is one of the specific circumstances under which Plusnet WILL permit the change of name on an existing account / contract to another family member ... unless things have changed recently.