Credit card charges for your own funeral

R

Rodfreelander

Guest
My estranged wife apparently signed a credit card voucher on my card for her own funeral expenses.
The bank insist that as the voucher bears her signature, the charge is valid.
I thought that cheques and credit card charges were invalid from the time of death.
Anyone have any experience of this?
 
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If it's not a joint card - i.e. is in your name only - then she is presumably not entitled to authorise transactions on the card. It sounds like a very odd situation to be honest!
 
Re: .

I recall hearing that credit card bills are wiped out on death. I'm not sure if this applies to joint accounts. Check out the small print.
 
Re: .

Taking things one step at a time -

1) your wife signed a credit card voucher - if she is still a signatory on the account then there is no particular reason for the charge not to be valid. If she is not a signatory, then of course the charge is invalid.

2) she signed for a funeral charge - this sale was made before death, product delivery will be after death. The way I see it, the contract (sale) is between a living person and a valid (presumably) corporate entity. I don't see how this could be disputed.

If you don't want any further charges on your account then either close it have her removed from the account.

z

p.s. this assumes your wife is not deceased.
 
Re: Credit cards and death

Thanks, Zag and others.

She was a registered user on my account.

She became ill in hospital and died there.

She may have signed blank vouchers before her death or her signature may have been a forgery - I don't know.

When she died, she wouldn't have known to which funeral home her body would be removed, but someone who was with her at the time, could have given one of the vouchers to the funeral home for them to process.

If that is legal, it means that any credit card blank slips signed by anyone before their death can still be used and processed after death. A frightening prospect.

I also have a charge, not signed, for the hospital charges which was processed three hours after her death.

Any other comments please ?
 
Re: Credit cards and death

Hi Rod - Without breaching any confidentiality, can you tell us where abouts did this happen, i.e what town/city?
 
Re: Credit cards and death

Rod,

I think you may need to get professional advice on this issue, as while at the basic level the issue seems to be reasonably clear - live person signed vouchers for supply of goods or services - at another level (the one you are interested in) there is a certain amount of greyness regarding whether your estranged wife may have been pressurised or may not have been aware of what she was doing or other concerns.

I would be pretty sure if you rang the credit card helpline (as you have done) they would simply say the charges are valid because they were signed by a signatory on the account. End of story from the helpline front.

If you wish to challenge on the basis of the information above you really need some professional advice as to what legal basis can be used to invalidate the transactions - this doesn't sound like on of the more usual credit card queries.

z
 
A cheque is "paid" only when presented to your acc

In the olden days before working with computers we used to "rule an account" on death. That literally meant that you got a ruler and a red biro and literally drew a line under the last transaction on the account that was made up to the time of death. Any cheques presented after this were returned with the answer "drawer deceased". So if someone held on to a cheque until after a person had died then, tough.

Was the credit card slip processed by automatic online machine when your wife was alive or was the credit card slip put through a manual machine and then presented after she had died?
 
Re: Credit cards and death

She had cancer and was on holiday in South America. She got into breathing difficulties, was rushed to hospital and died there. The hospital processed their charges to the card, but after her death but with no signature from her.

The funeral directors bill came to the grossly excessive sum of £4000 for just putting her body in a casket (for flight home - she was buried at home) and this bill was paid by a credit card voucher, apparently signed by her, and presented after death.
 
Re: A cheque is "paid" only when presented to your

I think that she must have either signed blank slips before her death or someone has forged her signature. The blank slip was then put through a manual machine after her death.

Does this law concerning cheques still apply?
 
Re: A cheque is "paid" only when presented to your

Hi Rod - Thanks for the additional context. Note that this board is really intended for discussion of Irish personal financial matters, so many of the comments above may not be accurate in the international context.
 
Re: A cheque is "paid" only when presented to your

Agreed Rainyday but the card was a Bank of Ireland card, so it is an Irish issue.

The main point that I find amazing is that if someone signs a pile of blank credit card vouchers before they die, those vouchers can be processed to pay bills after death!!!!!!!!
 
According to the [broken link removed], the account becomes due & payable in full to the bank on the death of the main cardholder. But I know you mentioned previously that you were the main account holder.

The main point that I find amazing is that if someone signs a pile of blank credit card vouchers before they die, those vouchers can be processed to pay bills after death!!!!!!!!
To be honest, [& I hope I don't come across as insensitive here], her death isn't really the issue here. If someone signs a pile of blank credit card vouchers at any time, the cardholder is still liable to pay those bills, regardless of whether the signatory is dead or alive. If you have reason to believe that fraud was involved, you should certainly dispute that charge with the credit card company. If the amount involved is substantial, it may be worth getting professional advice.

I guess there is a lesson to be learnt somewhere here about being careful about who has signatory rights to your credit card accounts.
 
Sorry to hear about your loss, Rod. May she rest in peace.
 
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