Death Notification Service

Relbs

Has anyone used this service, offered by Deceased Preference Service, where you send them 1 death certificate and nominate up to 10 companies, & they notify them on your behalf- all for free?! http://www.deceasedpreferenceservice.co.uk/death_notification_service.html

Seems a bit too good to be true (they do ask if they can talk to you about probate, and getting you to pay someone from their company to do it, but I just declined and it was fine. No high pressure sales).

Yorkshireman99

A rip off! This is free

https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once

Relbs

It's totally free and they contact people the "tell us once" service don't- such as banks, gas/electric, premium bonds.

Malthusian

If there is one service that is completely free and another service that is nominally free but tries to get you to agree to pay them through the nose for probate, then the latter is a rip off - even if you only get ripped off to the tune of the time it takes you to say no.

Contacting banks and Premium Bonds seems a bit pointless as you - or whoever administers the estate - presumably have to contact them again in due course to claim the money (unless you pay them to handle probate, which you shouldn't).

Good general advice would be to tell people to use the official "tell us once" service and contact any other firms yourself, rather than risk falling for the sales talk.