Bereavement in Help and Support
FIXED
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.
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.
well power suppliers and mobile phone operators have Modern Billing systems 
@Oldjim wrote:
... and don't advise Plusnet until things have setted down
or at least wait until your Line Rental Saver had expired, as Plusnet will NEVER pro-rata refund that. 
Hi all, sorry for the late response.
Firstly I recognise that this is an incredibly difficult time for anyone going through this and as such our process are designed to be as stress free as possible but I do recognise that we don't always get it right.
If the account holder is deceased we may ask for a copy of the death certificate once we've received this then the following options are available
- Complete closure of the account, waiving all fees and refunding of any unused months Line Rental Saver payments.
- Transferring of the account to an immediate family member
I hope that goes some way to answering your questions and for anyone experiencing this I'd be happy for them to PM me and I'll resolve it myself.
Another thing that almost every other company does is have an easily found specific phone number to call their dedicated "Bereavement Team", and from experience that phone number gets answered within TWO rings, the person you talk to is ready to speak sympathetically to a grieving caller, and you NEVER get your call passed between departments. As a grieving spouse, you don't want to be calling the "Customer Options Team" who's entire purpose is to try and hard sell you a deal to make you stay, staffed by sales people presumably paid on commission, who possibly don't have your best interests in mind during your time of loss.
Can you imagine the pain of a grieving spouse phoning Plusnet ?
First you have to struggle to navigate the Plusnet website to make a guess at which phone number you should be calling. Then waiting an interminable time in a call wait queue, listening to blaring music and inane advise to manage your account online, then to get through to the usual poorly trained and uncaring call centre staff, who then either make up the rules as they go along (because they don't know the procedure), or they transfer your call back into the general call pool, only for the next unsuspecting operator with no self-initiative to make an equal hash of an unsympathetic service.
No thanks ! 
Seriously, if you are out of contract, doing the "gaining provider led" migration, can all be done online in minutes.
You will probably get a better deal elsewhere that better suits your ongoing needs, and can take advantage of any introductory offers from the new provider.
Job done, money saved, and no stress and anger from trying to talk to Plusnet's call centre. 