Dealing with the death of an account holder

[Rik]

The death of a loved one is always a difficult time, and one of the problems often encountered is that the utility bills are usually in a single name. In the case of the phone, where the deceased is the name shown on the BT phone bill,  BT will treat any change of name as a cancellation of the contract. This means that the telephone service and any other services, such as broadband, may be cut-off. If that happens, BT will then charge the normal telephone Activation Fee of £108 and also the Broadband Activation Fee of £47.

IDNet can help avoid this situation if your telephone service is billed by them, as they are able to change the name on the bills without having the contract cancelled. Rest assured that they do understand how difficult a time this is for the family, and will handle the situation as sensitively as possible, with a minimum of fuss.

There's more on this subject in the FAQs, but we can do a lot to ease the pain for our loved ones with a little forward planning.