Natwest bereavement portal

rolysatch

Has anyone else found the NatWest bereavement system slow and useless? i uploaded all that was required except grant of probate a few months ago. When grant of probate was issued, I uploaded that. When I filled out the closure form there was an error with their system which wouldn't let me enter info in some of the boxes. When I called (they're quick to answer and very helpful on the phone), they reset their system and I had to re-upload grant of probate again on the 23/02/2024 - each time telling me they didn't require anything else. I chased it this morning and i was told that my driving licence only showed half an image for some reason and I would need to upload that again even though I originally uploaded that months ago. Each time info is requested you have to wait at least 10 days minimum for a response, absolutely hopeless.

Savvy_Sue

I didn't have to use the bereavement portal, but I did a while back need to use their online ID verification system and it was a complete and utter nightmare to get acceptable photos of people and ID documents. Every time I uploaded something I'd be waiting with bated breath to see if it had been accepted, and then the ping of the email saying it hadn't been ... 

pjs493

I found their bereavement portal clunky, but it did the job. In saying that the sums we were talking about weren’t huge as they were secondary accounts and the Bank released funds without the need for Probate. It probably helped that I was a NatWest customer and my husband and I had joint accounts together so funds in those accounts immediately became mine when he died. They could easily cross reference and validate who I was. 

I have, however, had several issues with the bank with its online ID system previously. I had problems both times I tried to set up accounts for my young children. They couldn’t seem to comprehend my name change upon marriage and I’ve now had to provide my marriage certificate five times over the years to demonstrate my change in name. Why they can’t keep this in their records, I have no idea. Both times I tried to set up accounts for our children when they were born resulted in complaints and monetary compensation for the incompetence of employees both in branch and over the phone. 

SevenOfNine

I found their bereavement portal "not fit for purpose". The bank weren't even capable of freezing my mum's account even though I had the death cert & was named on the a/c. In the end I told them to just hang on to her £20k if they needed it that badly. I used my own money whilst dealing with the estate & waiting for probate to complete (for the majority of things I only needed the death cert) & did a formal complaint.

End result was a compensation sum paid into her a/c & her balance was transferred into an account I'd opened with Lloyds. I've nothing 'good' to say about NatWest bereavement process, we had a local branch back then (Nov 2020), they were equally as useless.

If they keep saying this or that isn't good enough, & taking their time about saying it, just start a formal complaint. It's not even about 'compensation', they need to get their bereavement admin running properly.