Good Morning All

Just received the following from Citi Financial.

My wife's Father died in April and we wrote to all his creditors with copies of the Death Certificate and have received varied replies, some thoughtful and sensitive and some no so. However, this one from Citi just about takes all.

If you were in any doubt about why they act as they do then read on.

Not only did they address my wife (who has a pretty obvious girl’s name) as "Mr" they also addressed her by late Fathers surname, her old maiden name.

My Father-in-Law did not have any defaults on his account; however the outstanding balance is over £6K.

5 July 2006

Mr (Obvious Girls Name!) (Deceased Name!)

AnyStreet

AnyTown

AnyCounty

Postcode

Dear Mr XXXXXX

Re: 1234 1234 1234 1234* Mr XXXXXXXXXX(Deceased)

We acknowledge the receipt of the death certificate for Mr XXXXXXXXX.

Unfortunately, this account was not covered by Repayment Protection Insurance, leaving an outstanding balance of £XXXX.XX

Should you have any further questions regarding this account, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0870 909 4431** or logon to our website Citibank UK - Current Accounts, Savings Accounts, Investments, Bank Accounts, Credit Cards, Banking, United Kingdom.

Your sincerely

(Illegible scrawl)

Operations Administration

* Please quote the full 16-digit account number on all correspondence.

** Calls may be monitored and/or recorded for training and quality purposes.

Now I am not especially sensitive but even I can see that this is a pretty poor way to treat a family who have just lost a father. He was 79 and as you can see from the above, this debt was not insured. Notwithstanding any claim Citi may attempt against the estate, if it were up to me they can whistle for it. If they extend credit to people in their 70's and do not take further steps to protect themselves against loss then they are being remarkably short sighted.

I do not advocate irresponsibility toward borrowing or debt but it appears to me that they should look again at their lending criteria and ensure they have adequate cover for this one inescapable eventuality.

I was always of the opinion that if a person dies his debt 'dies' with him, is this no longer the case?

Only gambling debts legally "die" with the debtor. If there is enough money in the estate then the debts must be paid out of that. There is a specific order that monies must be paid and rather unsurprisingly HM Govt get first pick after the Testamentary Expenses are taken care of, then there is a list of who gets paid and in what order.

If the deceased was the sole account holder then nobody else is legally liable for the debt but credit card companies have been known not to let this little fact out and attempt collection from the deceased relatives.

So you're ok are you? or i should say your wife! or do you have to pay it back out of the estate?

The total outstanding is in excess of £20k. He was not an ordinary 79 year old man, if there is such a thing! No pipe and slippers for him. He was a prominent local politician and very active right up until the end. He was out the night before speaking at a function and died early the following morning.

We are in the process of dealing with the financial side of the estate, something we are familiar with because my Father died in November. Luckily a family friend and director of one of my companies is a solicitor so we are getting help there without cost.

However, he left a widow, my Mother-in-Law and she wants to keep the house. Thankfully the rules governing property ownership are quite clear and the equity is not counted as part of his estate, so she will not be forced to sell up to pay the debts. As they were unsecured debts they have to join the queue - and guess what, it's a long one!

oh dear, big headaches all round then!!! i sincerely hope you get it all sorted out soon, good luck to you and yours

You couldnt make this up.

Tact diplomacy and understanding are words that Citi have never heard of

 

Not only did they address my wife (who has a pretty obvious girl’s name) as "Mr" they also addressed her by late Fathers surname, her old maiden name.

How insensitive:eek: . How difficult is it really to get someone's name correct when writing

I'd be sorely tempted to put the letter back in the mailbox, in its original envelope with a note written on it saying "not known at this address".

Damn! I wish I had thought of that.

The thing is, she wrote the letters to inform Citi and the others of the death of her father, it should have been a simple matter to reply to the named person who wrote the letter rather than the deceased, but clearly not for Citi.

Sorry for your loss Hagenuk, take a look at this story

Penalty Charges -> citibank customer

Not exactly very funny but bloody typical

Now that is pretty funny.

The following did happen to us though.

We got two phone calls followed by a Statutory Default Notice for my late Father-in-Law from Morgan Stanley. He was one month behind (well, that and dead of course!) and they went for the default! One month! They were informed by telephone twice and received the same letter that the others did, along with a copy of the death certificate yet it still did not register with them.

I wonder if Experian will amend his credit record?

lol. Here's me trying to be compassionate too.

mairi