Cancel credit cards prior to death!

[wyocowgirl1]

I sympathize with anyone who has had to settle an estate. I had to do Dad's and he hadn't done anything to settle Mom's. Lots of fun with insurance companies, etc. The thing that blew me away was the years afterwards when I still got sales phone calls and letters for him. A fortune was spent trying to sell things to my deceased father.

[victorfrank]

Wouldn't surprise me in the least

When my mum died nearly six years ago, I got sick of the letters which started something like, we are sorry to hear of the death of ******, please accept our condolences.
We believe that you are now responsible for the **** bill, & you owe us X amount.

Most of the utility bills got transferred into my name, except the gas bill.For some reason British Gas only changed the name & set up the direct debit for electricity.
I was getting dual fuel discount & signed up for paperless billing, worked ok for a time & I paid the gas by bank transfer, then they changed their website.
Suddenly the gas bill wasn't available to check online, & I didn't have a clue what I owed them as I had no way to check, until I got a snotty letter addressed to my mum's estate.
I phoned them, to sort it out, was told everything was fine, then got another snotty letter saying I hadn't paid when I knew I had.

So phoned them again, they've got one of the automated systems which means you should put your account number in to get through, as I did so I realised that they'd changed my account number, which was obviously what had caused the problem.
First time I got a foreign call centre & the guy cut me off,
second time, I didn't put in an account number, got through was told I needed to be transferred, was transferred & told to call back later, & cut off.
Third time I put in my mum's account number, got straight through to what I'm fairly sure was a UK call centre, was greeted by name, & the whole thing was sorted in a couple of seconds.
I guess they though a dead person calling them rated a supervisor answering the call.

I did get my own back on one person, after dad died. He kept on at me wanting to know when he would be available to answere the phone & how he could contact him, until I got annoyed & said.
"I suggest you contact a good medium".
Silence!!
He didn't call back.

Again, I just think it is horrendous. Hounding the dead and/or the bereaved is just un-speakable, in my book. I will certainly tell my children that if I owe anything after I have 'snuffed it', and they have demanding letters, then they should send some of my ashes - hopefully in a pre-paid envelope - to the person demanding, as payment of a 'pound of flesh' in full and final settlement.

[madelaine]

I think that one of the reasons these problems persist is that the people best placed to solve them have no interest in doing it. Solicitors who have trouble getting information can just charge more because it took up their time.

[MrsBentley]

sad part is that is probably true.

I have card safe on my cards. If something happens to me, loss of work, injury, maternity, death, etc they pay off my balance.