pre paid funeral

whippetowner

my mother had a pre paid funeral plan she paid £1597 in 2006


my mam unfortunately passed away when we gave the funeral director her plan he took it away with him and told us we had over 1350 left to pay .


we asked him to return mams plan so we could see what she had paid for ,so far he has not returned it and we have been given a bill for £1430


is it normal to have that amount left to pay on a pre paid plan


thanks

Faith177

We had about £1322 to pay on top of my mums plan for things that weren't covered by the plan i.e we had a piper play at the graveside and newspaper announcements and because we had to buy a new plot in Scotland we had to pay the additional towards the celebrant fees.

Basically with my mums plan it had allowences included within the plan so I think for example it was a £1000 towards the grave and minister fees well the new plot took up £900 odd of that

Also there was nothing for the stone I don't think so we are having to pay that aswell but I'll need to check

G6JNS

whippetowner wrote: »

my mother had a pre paid funeral plan she paid £1597 in 2006


my mam unfortunately passed away when we gave the funeral director her plan he took it away with him and told us we had over 1350 left to pay .


we asked him to return mams plan so we could see what she had paid for ,so far he has not returned it and we have been given a bill for £1430


is it normal to have that amount left to pay on a pre paid plan


thanks

You need to see what the plan covered as there are all sorts of differences.

whippetowner

thanks for the replies ,I will ring up and ask again for mams plan
to be returned again.


the funeral director said she hadn't paid for a car which I found strange as mam always thought her funeral was all paid for bar flowers and food

Shelldean

We had the same with OH Nan's funeral.
It's all to do with disbursements, or so the funeral director told us.

OH Nan and her husband paid for both of their funerals in about 2002.

Her husband died.in 2004 and.there was.no.extra.charges.

However when Nan died in 2014, we got a similar bill to yours.
And the director said Nan had paid xx for the car whereas now it cost xxx. Same applied to other things, the costs had risen. Opening the grave was big increase.

Also Nan died in a care home early on a Sunday morning, due to it being unsocial hours the cost of moving her to the funeral parlour was higher than usual. Plus this moving cost is never charged to a plan as it isn't always needed. And if it's paid for with the funeral plan but not used it can't be refunded. Hope that makes sense?

konark

If they're going to pass price rises onto you it's hardly worth doing! I thought these sort of plans were sold omn the premiss that funeral inflation was rising faster than normal inflation ( though god knows why) and this was a way to avoid future price-rises by paying the full amount at today's prices.

Not that they simply took your money as a downpayment and then charged you full inflated price later on.

Shelldean

konark wrote: »

If they're going to pass price rises onto you it's hardly worth doing! I thought these sort of plans were sold omn the premiss that funeral inflation was rising faster than normal inflation ( though god knows why) and this was a way to avoid future price-rises by paying the full amount at today's prices.

Not that they simply took your money as a downpayment and then charged you full inflated price later on.

I agree konark.

The main extra.cost for us was the removal of the body, as this is never included in funeral plans (so the director said) as it is.often not needed. But if it's not needed it can not be refunded nor used against any other extra.charges.


I may have been wrong about the cars, but I know for certain another part of the extra cost was from the council that owned the grave.

bongonaut

Many different products are described as 'funeral plans'. Some cover very specific services and name a specific funeral director. Others are merely whole of life insurances which just provide a set sum of money toward the cost of a funeral.

If it's the former type, then the NAMED funeral director will guarantee not to charge any more at the time of the funeral for their services (hearse, coffin etc) that are covered by the plan. The plan MIGHT also extend that guarantee to the basic third-party fees (eg crematorium, minister & doctors).

You need to go back to your FD and get them to explain to you clearly 1. what is covered by the plan
2. are there unguaranteed items in the plan for which he is asking for more money?
3. have you ordered additional services (flowers, catering, newspaper notices, cars etc) that are not covered by the plan at all?

Mojisola

It's like anything else you buy - you need to read the details and make sure what's covered. My parents had plans with AgeUK for a cremation and all the costs were covered.

http://www.which.co.uk/money/insurance/reviews-ns/funeral-plans/the-costs-of-funeral-plans/

Torry_Quine

This does surprise me as the two funerals I've helped arrange which used pre-paid plans didn't have extra costs. The only thing that had to be paid for was the notice in the local paper.

Faith177

I ended having a massive row with Diginity Plan over my mums plan to the point I was about to march into their office and not leave till someone used some common sense.

My mum lived in Scotland and had done since 2006 she went to stay with my aunt and while there died very suddenly even the hospital were shocked. They wanted to charge me 75p per mile to transfer my mum back to Inverness as they claimed she was living with my aunt.

It took me over a week to get them to admit that she couldnt have been living in Nottingham as she still had the tenancy on her house and hadnt given up either of her jobs up there and that her car was still parked outside her house!

Each plan varies the one my mum took out as I said just gave allowences towards things she had included grave costs as she already had my dads plot in London but I didn't want her back down here as she fought so hard to achieve her dream in Scotland didn't seem right to bring her back theres why we had some addidtional to pay