Pre Paid Funeral Plan advice/recommendation please

sloughflint

Have you tried contacting the associations for advice? It seems unfair when accounts of deceased are frozen and not all banks ( many do) will allow access for funeral payments.

http://www.funeralplanningauthority.com/complaints.html

http://www.nafd.org.uk/funeral-advice/contact-the-nafd.aspx

http://www.funeralplanningauthority.com/

dfarry

Associations?... as in CAB etc? I have advised my mother to but she just wants it over and done with.

Other than that we are waiting to hear from the British Legion (my dad is ex-forces)... apparently they can help with some funeral costs but a case worker has to speak to my mother first???... I might give them a call tomorrow if I get a chance.

Also Norwich Union are sitting on about £2000 in an Endowment Policy... I am still waiting for the forms to be sent to me.

I should be able to scrape the money together to pay the CO-OP, they are demanding it by this Saturday, I don't think I should go down though (I won't do anything silly of course... but I am very angry about all of this).

dfarry

Ah thanks for adding the links... I wasn't aware that there were funeral planning associations.

sloughflint

I'm not sure that you will get anywhere since they do state in their FAQ:

13 What happens if I die before I have
finished paying for my Plan?
If you are paying in full over a set period and you die
before your Plan has been paid for in full, your
relatives/representatives have the option to either:
• Pay any amount still owed as a single payment.
This must be paid before the funeral can be arranged
OR
• Cancel your Plan by writing to us. If this happens,
a refund of all payments will be made to the Plan
Purchaser or Plan Holder’s estate as appropriate,
less a cancellation charge of £250.:eek::eek::eek:
If you are paying by fixed monthly payments and you die
during the first two years following the start date of the Plan,
then the Plan benefits will not be delivered and your estate
will receive the amount equal to 120% of the payments paid.
If your death is beyond the first two years, you are entitled to
the full Plan benefits, with no further payments due after the
date of death.

It does seem mighty unfair though. Why treat someone who has contributed to their funeral ( and gaining the company interest) less favourably than someone who hasn't taken out a plan?
They've paid a deposit of sorts. Surely the rest can wait a bit.

dfarry

It certainly is... but other than being unfair the terms are clear... were stuck with it really.

Hopefully this thread will at least warn others and ensure they do check the t&c's more carefully than my parents did.

Sarahjovi

dfarry wrote: »

Just had another conversation with CO-OP FuneralCare (helpline)... still adamant that the plan is a pre-paid plan and as such has to be paid for in full before the funeral. If the balance is not paid then the body would remain in the funeral "home" I think they mean the local CO-OP office. Apparently the plan can be cancelled but then you have to wait 6 WEEKS to get the money back (interesting that a single call is sufficient to set up a plan and I bet it takes a lot less time to debit the first plan payment!)

I am astonished by this and it has really opened my eye's, even those that have died are fair game when it comes to making money!... so much for planning for the future - the safest bet is not to use these schemes and to save your money in a "safe" bank.

Frankly I feel that the CO-OP don't give a damn about bereaved families with their pay up or else attitude, if you were thinking about starting one of these schemes makes sure you are fully aware of the terms and conditions and how limiting they can be if the plan has not been paid in full.

It may be worth phoning another funeral directors in the area, explain the situation and see what they suggest. They may do the funeral for you and wait for payment, once you get your money back from the Co-op. Funeral Directors are there to ease you through the process, not make things difficult. You are entitled to make your own funeral arrangements, you don't have to go to a Funeral Directors! Obviously you have to book Crematorians etc., yourself, so going through the Directors makes sense, but they charge throught the nose for it! I was appalled with the Co-op and if it was my decision I would have gone elsewhere!

Sarah

clairehi

This is really disgusting treatment.

When my dad died, we just asked the churchwarden to recommend a local undertaker and got them in. tbh we did not even ask for a quote as my mum was v traumatised and the last thing she needed was to have people talking money.

The undertaker took care of everything with perfect discretion except the costs of the funeral tea which we arranged separately. I could not fault him in any way - with minimal input from us, he co-ordinated everything perfectly.

He did not even send in a bill until nearly 2 months after my dad died (I phoned them in the end to chase it up!) and by then we had received the £2K Bereavement Payment which actually covered the costs anyway.

I know it sounds very non MSE but the last thing we wanted to do was to shop around for my dad's funeral! I hope he would have understood.

Sorry this does not help the OP but my advice to anyone else would be to ask for a personal recommendation for an FD.