what happens if i die

[#1]

hi,

not the best place to ask this, but can't be bothered trying to work out how to ask via my account...

anyway i recently had a heart attack and there are still problems and so now thinking about what happens if i die.

at the moment my account is under my name, but obviously my family use it and also the email that comes along with it.

what will happen if I die, will it be possible to transfer the account across to my partner?

how will this be done?

i think the direct debit is in my name as well, not sure what happens with that either, again how should my partner sort that out?

anyway if you could tell me what the best course of action is for us.

cheers

pete

[#2]

@bluewhale 

Sorry to hear of your recent illness.

I raised this some time ago see: https://community.plus.net/t5/Plusnet-Feedback/Bereavement-and-Plusnet-Customer-Services/m-p/1811896...

I finally got an answer, see the last post. Apparantly your grieving family member has to ring the general CSA line and listen to the awful music waiting for an agent to answer. Hopefully this agent will be one one of the 'vast majority' who have been trained, but possibly never have had to deal with, a bereavement.

Personally I consider this quite unacceptable and having had a couple of run ins with the Grim Reaper myself, will be a factor that I will consider when my current contract runs out next year.

[#3]

@bluewhale Sorry to hear of what has happened, hope you get well soon.

Can't you just get your PlusNet account transferred to someone else's name, and the bank details? I would give them a call and tell them who you want to be the new owner of your account. Have yourself and the other person available on the line as I assume it'll need both of you. You as the current account holder for security reasons and the new owner.

When my mother passed away, I had to contact PlusNet to update the Direct Debit details and they were very helpful on the phone.

[#4]

@bluewhale 

Don’t fall in to the trap that got me when I had a heart attack.  My prognosis was that statistically I had a 50% chance of surviving 5 years. I went into depression and went for a last nostalgic look around the sparkling seaside towns that I visited as a child. It was out of season and all I found were dreary run down seaside towns. This did not help!

I then got a grip and got on with life. I’m still here being a nuisance over 20 years later. Life may well never quite be the same again but live for today. 

[#5]

Hi Pete,

I'm really sorry to see this and I do hope you'll make a full recovery. 

The short answer is yes, if your partner calls us on 0800 432 0200 we'll be able to transfer the account into her name as an immediate family member, then update any relevant details like contact numbers and the direct debit. 

If your partner prefers we close the account instead we'll be able to do this without termination fees though I appreciate you've said they'll want to carry on using the Plusnet email address that comes along with the account, so transferring it into your partner's name or another immediate family member's would be the best option here.

If they don't want to call as I know how distressing a time it is, they can email us a copy of the death certificate at postroom@plus.net with an explanation of what they'll want to be done with the account, then they can update the account details themselves by logging in from Here (Apart from the name, we'll do that)

If we receive notification from your bank that the direct debit will be cancelled due to "payer deceased, reason code 2" our Customer Advocates Team will pick this up and we'll put bills on hold for up to 30 days and send a letter to your address we're providing your services, with a direct contact number for this team they can call.

It's worth noting if we don't hear back within 30 days of us receiving this notification from the bank and sending out the letter, we'll automatically close your account with no termination fees. We may not receive this notification if your bank account is also in someone else's name (like your partner's for example as a dual account holder)

If they need any further support, feel free to ask them to private message any of us listed as "Help Team" here or message us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/plusnet) or Twitter (@plusnet).

In the meantime, I'd recommend filling out our additional support form on your account Here so we can make sure we're offering the best support we can given the circumstances. 

I'll be happy to call you back to run through this if you've got further queries?

[#6]

@Baldrick1 yeah was already suffering from depression/anxiety, so no real change. the risk i have now is that i may have to go in again for a heart bypass, so much higher risk than the stent i had done. my arteries not in a good state.

but thanks for the comment, just planning for the worst to help my partner as much as i can

wish i could say i was leaving this planet in a better state than when i arrived, but that is obviously not the case in all the ways that matter

[#7]

@bluewhale 

Regardless of the state of our plumbing we’re all going to leave the planet sooner or later. The trick is not to look on the black side. I found that a book and relaxation CD by Paul McKenna helped.

[#8]

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@Gandalf wrote:

If they don't want to call as I know how distressing a time it is, they can email us a copy of the death certificate at postroom@plus.net with an explanation of what they'll want to be done with the account, then they can update the account details themselves by logging in from Here (Apart from the name, we'll do that)

---

This is slightly at variance with this: https://community.plus.net/t5/Plusnet-Feedback/Bereavement-and-Plusnet-Customer-Services/m-p/1812943...

What is so difficult for Plusnet to produce a simple procedure, and also a standard pro forma document that could either be scanned and emailed or posted to Plusnet? There's one for cancelling an account. This could simply explain the options (these being the composite full facts) and allow the choices as to what to do with the account to be easily and quickly reported to Plusnet. You could then reference this document such that a Google search immediately picked it up.

It's not hard, it just needs a couple of hours work and the inclination.

[#9]

@Baldrick1 

What’s the variance? From what I can see both myself and Adam’s explained a death certificate can be sent to postroom@plus.net. I haven’t mentioned by post as I figured email would be easier but post is an option. 

We explain the process Here though I appreciate we don’t provide the email address in the article. As it happens I’m working closely with our digital team (@JonoH) looking at making our support articles better so this may be one we could review and add to the list.

[#10]

@Anoush 

Thanks for responding on your day off. The difference I was thinking of centres around using the post options. I am guessing that your assumption that the most likely means of communication would be by email is a generation thing. If I consider my friends there is generally one of the couple who is computer literate, the other might or might not be so savvy and would be much happier putting pen to paper.

As an aside. Have you tried putting Plusnet bereavement into a web browser? None of the links that I have seen lead to your well buried procedure.

[#11]

@Baldrick1 

Sorry for the assumption.  I tried to make my initial reply as detailed as possible and I failed... Makes absolute sense and I’ll bear this in mind!

For me, doing a Google search of “Plusnet bereavement” brings up the Help & Support article linked above in the first result. Which search engine do you use?

[#12]

@Anoush 

You are quite right. The necessary information now appears at the very top of the Google page. I don't know how long it has been there, but I have never noticed it before today. I note that it is a sub heading:

I also use Duckduckgo as a browser. The entry does not appear on their opening page.

Again this does not mention the use of email or even snail mail, just ring and listen to the music!

[#13]

@Baldrick1 wrote:

Again this does not mention the use of email or even snail mail, just ring and listen to the music!

I'll feed it back to Digital. Thanks for the heads up