Paying for a funeral, they want the money up-front!

pip.roberts

there seems to be a lot of fear on the debt side of things when someone dies, not always the case. you juts need a decent "event planner" or insurer. find someone with the contacts, they may charge tyou but you end up saving in the long run. no neded to go "emptying the hubbys" bank acccount as you write. for example when we got married we had a limited budget. so we got a wedding planner on board, they found us a unique wedding venue at Gibson Hall, a posh place in the city - becuase we got it though the planner it ended up comnig for free. it will be the same with Funeral arragnment, you need to find a contact who deals in this sort of thing. they are out there if you look and you save a bunch.

Tuesday_Tenor wrote: »

This sounds a bit odd.

Yes, you can START organising the funeral before you have the death certificate (e.g. slight delay for post mortem). But no funeral director would be invoicing you before you've even got the death certificate.

If you have already got the money on the credit card then you have acted a bit prematurely and made a bit of a mess for yourself. Can't you just pay the money back to the credit card and then do it all in the right order:
- Death cert to bank to close accounts.
- Present funeral directors invoice to bank, who will then pay FDs directly.

Mojisola

pip.roberts wrote: »

there seems to be a lot of fear on the debt side of things when someone dies, not always the case. you juts need a decent "event planner" or insurer. find someone with the contacts, they may charge tyou but you end up saving in the long run.

I've never heard of a 'funeral planner'.

bongonaut

Many funeral directors, particularly the smaller, independent concerns, are very pleased to work with individuals and their families to discuss options and finances in advance. The days immediately after someone has died are usually the worst possible time to have to make difficult decisions that may never have been discussed beforehand.

headachesrus

When I arranged my father's funeral I got differing information from different people in the same firm. The first one I spoke to said I had to pay all disbursements by the day prior to the funeral and they would invoice me afterwards for the balance. When I went in the day before I was told I needn't have bothered and it could all be paid afterwards.

Ardlife

Conclusion, have reduced bill a little by removing all internment costs, will sort that out later.
Have agreed to pay bill on morning of funeral, and it will be to credit card but as my cc bill gets produced tonight it wont appear until next month's statement so that gives me a good 6 weeks which am sure will be enough for banks to release that amount. If they need to send to FD then that's no problem he said as they can re-credit my card (which I suppose actually saves on their credit card % payment as payment of funeral by debit or credit card has no extra fees for client).
I don't want to moan about the FD, it just happens they do have a captured market and without thinking people just sign up. I know if I get involved again I will be comparing a lot more and stuff the rush thinking you need to get funeral done straight away.
Thanks again for all input.