charities on bank statement

grosy

hi. just started to go through my fathers bank statements to see what was coming in and going out and found at least 10 charities getting small donations.

Do I have to inform each charity of his death or is the fact that the account is suspended enough.
thanks

Yorkshireman99

Are these standing orders or direct debits? Notifying the bank of the death will freeze both sorts but it might be courteous to notify them but the is no obligation to do so.

badmemory

Just stop the DDs. They should think themselves grateful for what they have already had. When I took over my mother's affairs by POA she had a load of them too. They were mostly from charities that she would have had no interest in whatsoever and were mostly started from around the time we started to be concerned. They use flattery & sob stories to con people into signing up.

Savvy_Sue

Personally, I'd notify them, because if you don't you may start getting letters to the deceased trying to find out why their donations have stopped.

grosy

Thanks for the replies. I will try find phone numbers and give them a call. They were mostly direct debits.

Robin9

grosy wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I will try find phone numbers and give them a call. They were mostly direct debits.

A letter may be better - then you will have a record.

Yorkshireman99

Robin9 wrote: »

A letter may be better - then you will have a record.

No need really. Notifying the bank will stop all DDs and the bank with tell them for you. Simples!

Savvy_Sue

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

No need really. Notifying the bank will stop all DDs and the bank with tell them for you. Simples!

But will the bank tell them the person has died? Or just that the DD has stopped? And if it was a Standing Order (as it will be for smaller charities, the mechanics of taking DDs being quite complex), will the bank tell them anything?

To the OP, I emailed the charity Mum was supporting: the double benefit of a record, and being able to do it at a time which suited me (often quite late at night ...)

badmemory

I did notify the one charity my mother had been supporting for years, the others which had been added recently I didn't bother & felt they should be grateful for what they got. It seems they had been really nice on the phone & she felt bad not donating. Most people donate to a very limited selection of their favourite charities, not a whole series. Her number had got on a list & I doubt she even knew who she was giving too in the end. They target the vulnerable and the caring. Personally I wouldn't waste the cost of a stamp or phone call on them.

chesky

I wouldn't bother but if you do, make sure you don't give them your contact details, otherwise you yourself will be on their list.

Keep_pedalling

badmemory wrote: »

I did notify the one charity my mother had been supporting for years, the others which had been added recently I didn't bother & felt they should be grateful for what they got. It seems they had been really nice on the phone & she felt bad not donating. Most people donate to a very limited selection of their favourite charities, not a whole series. Her number had got on a list & I doubt she even knew who she was giving too in the end. They target the vulnerable and the caring. Personally I wouldn't waste the cost of a stamp or phone call on them.

Between us we donate regularly to around 12 charities and all of them have our contact details, so going by the above statement we should be on that list and be bombarded with calls from loads of other charities, but that does not happen because charities do not share this data. For a start it would be illegal, and secondly no charity wants to dilute gifts by their supporters by having money diverted to other charities.

The only calls we get from charities are from the ones we already support. Door to door cold calling is another matter though.