VENT: October is Free Wills Month - Scam?

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  • forgotmyname
    forgotmyname Posts: 32,568 Forumite
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    Spotted this also and enquired, seems you add a donation in the will and the charity your donating to pay the fee instead.

    Maybe to play on your concience to donate more than the will costs at the solicitors? Its coming from your estate not your pocket?
    Censorship Reigns Supreme in Troll City...

  • daytona0
    daytona0 Posts: 2,358 Forumite
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    Looks like they have gradually removed their search option since 2009...

    http://web.archive.org/web/20091028132056/http://www.freewillsmonth.org.uk/

    If you look at this page you can see that in 2009 they had a dropdown of different locations but London and Cambridge did not feature on the list. Other years it was just Scottish towns, so I think you will be out of luck :)

    So in a nutshell, yes it is legitimate, yes it is charity-based and no I would not automatically assume that your details will be sold on, but they will probably put you into a database and contact you October 2017 with the same offer!
  • knightstyle
    knightstyle Posts: 7,001 Forumite
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    edited 15 October 2016 at 7:55PM
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    We used https://www.actionaid.org.uk/get-involved/will-aid?gclid=CImQ25e93c8CFeUV0wod8moN5w a few years ago, is this the same thing?
    You pay £95 for 1 will, £150 for a pair and all the money goes to charity.
    The solicitors we used matched our donation as well.
  • SolentGal
    SolentGal Posts: 2 Newbie
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    Will Aid month is November apparently. Not if you live in or around Southampton. I put my postcode in the search facility and all that came up were several firms on the Isle of Wight and the next nearest was 24 miles away near Bournemouth. It would appear that all the Solicitors in Southampton are so impoverished that they cannot afford to take part in Will Aid month!
  • AngelaClare
    AngelaClare Posts: 2 Newbie
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    I tried it in November was asked to pay £95. Free wills is very misleading
  • AngelaClare
    AngelaClare Posts: 2 Newbie
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    I followed the link regarding Free Wills November, I was contacted by a Solicester, who informed me I had to pay £95. Very misleading.
  • knightstyle
    knightstyle Posts: 7,001 Forumite
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    Although the title is misleading if you read the blurb you will find that the solicitor gets nothing for making the wills so it is free!
    But you are asked, told to, make a donation to a charity in order to qualify for the "free" will writing.
    We were under no illusions about what we were doing. If you want a free will there are plenty of free forms on line you can use to DIY a will, ours was complicated due to us having lived abroad and still having a French property.
  • DoaM
    DoaM Posts: 11,863 Forumite
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    When we did it a few years ago, there was no insistence on making a donation to charity, but it was expected. (In our case it was £125 ... solicitor fees would likely have been higher anyway).
  • SpammyTheSpammer
    SpammyTheSpammer Posts: 1,773 Forumite
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    VERY scammy to me...
    I am a cow so cannot speak Bullshine but I do recognise its smell when I come upon it.
  • HiToAll
    HiToAll Posts: 1,297 Forumite
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    SpammyTheSpammer wrote: »
    VERY scammy to me...

    How is it a scam?
This discussion has been closed.
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