Late fees + interest on Credit card...

Conanius

Conanius

Conanius

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... More to this than meets the eye !

My dad passed away in June last year. He died on Monday 20th June, and on Thursday 23rd June I went round all the banks we could find that he had accounts with to advise them of the death and produce a death certificate.

His main bank, whom he had a credit card with, were made aware of all this, and seemed happy with this. They required probate before the accounts could be settled.

He had that months credit card activity to pay, but obviously with all the accounts frozen we were unable to pay the card bill. I was advised at the time all accounts were frozen in that state.

A month after his death, mum started getting phone calls off the credit card section of the branch demanding payment, she advised them of the situation, and after another month of fun and games and a visit to the branch manager in our local branch it all stopped.

Fast forward to now. Probate was granted in late December and on Dec 31st I visited the bank in question to deal with the remaining paperwork. All details were sent off, and I made it clear I had no intention of paying late fees or interest on an account which I had been advised was frozen.

Am I being unrealisitic to think its somewhat absurd that when they froze the accounts they can't start chucking late fees and interest on the top? To me this sounds somewhat obscene, especially considering how bloody time consuming gaining probate was.
 
Companies get this so wrong unfortunately. This is the last thing you need to be dealing with when you're grieving. My mum was getting final demands from Sky for payment of my grandad's account months after he had passed away and she had confirmation from them it was settled. Despite assurances again that it was resolved they kept sending demands for payment.

I expect in this case itll be something like the credit card being run by a separate entity to the bank and them not being as joined up as you might expect.
 
In my fathers case my sisters and I set up a trustees account in a bank with which all credits and debits could be dealt with. We went through all his correspondence and files and then sent off a recorded letter to all utilities, banks etc. stating that he was deceased and all accounts should be frozen forthwith. Any requests for payment shall only be made to the named trustees and payment will not be made until probate has been granted.
Only one telephone company ignored this to their cost as his house was going through a sale at the time of his death and the new owners were able to make calls which they tried to claim from us. To little avail.
 
Interest should still be paid, after all the bank still don't have their money back and money outstanding accrues interest.

Paying late fees relating to payments missed after death is silly though.
 
May I ask which bank this is?

I work within a deceased estates team, and should be able to give some advice.

email in trust if you would prefer :)
 
Had similar issues when my dad died. Most companies are normally fine with the probate or even just a death certificate but the banks and insurance companies were nothing but insensitive money grabbing ****s.
 
MrMoonX said:
this there is nothing they can do, debts don't get transferred in death, so tell them to poke it
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Wrong.

Unless the estate is insolvent, then all debts must be settled before any assets can be distributed.
 
Pez said:
Wrong.

Unless the estate is insolvent, then all debts must be settled before any assets can be distributed.
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not strictly true. If there was no immediate family, or beneficiaries, the debt would not transfer and would simply be written off. Banks can stake a "claim" for debt, but that doesn't neccessarily mean it will get settled.

That's obviously not the case here though and any decent solicitor would advise that the bank are in the wrong to charge late fees + interest.
 
Lucero said:
not strictly true. If there was no immediate family, or beneficiaries, the debt would not transfer and would simply be written off. Banks can stake a "claim" for debt, but that doesn't neccessarily mean it will get settled.

That's obviously not the case here though and any decent solicitor would advise that the bank are in the wrong to charge late fees + interest.
Click to expand...

Source? :)

Where there are assets available, no debts, and no beneficiaries to receive - the remaining assets would pass to the treasurey solicitor.

If there are assets, all debts must be settled before funds are passed to beneficiaries.
 
They have sent a letter today saying we have X amount in Credit and Y amount in Debt across the accounts, and that we need to pay the Debt to release the Credit.

Luckily, I took figures from the bank of the value of all accounts on the Thursday back in June, they want just over £60 in late payment fees, something which on principal I feel compelled to refuse to pay. Granted, plenty of emotion going on with all this, so I put this thread up here to see what the common man thought about all this.

Pez, I wanted to avoid naming the bank on the forum as I'd prefer to not turn this into a mud slinging competition. I'll give you a shout if it gets silly when I call tomorrow to try and talk to them about it.

Frustrating thing is, after chatting to mum about all this someone in branch apparently told her back in August not to worry and the charges would be definitely cancelled. I'll bring that up in the convo.
 
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