Bereavement in Help and Support

[#1]

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

[#2]

Must be possible with a bit of effort.

[#3]

@Oldjim  a good point .....

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

[#4]

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.

[#5]

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

[#6]

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?.

[#7]

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.

[#8]

@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.

[#9]

@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.  

[#10]

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 

[#11]

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@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? 

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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. 

[#12]

@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?

[#13]

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.

[#14]

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

[#15]

@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.