When Dh passes will they freeze our joint bank account?

[Toutdessuite]

I rang our UK bank today. The lady didn’t fill me with confidence when she said she was sure they wouldn’t. I asked for a definite answer but unfortunately her English left me unsure. A search on the internet seemed to say they wouldn’t but I would like to know 100%.

I’m nursing him at home at the moment so going to the branch in town is not an option.

TSB and Nationwide didn’t freeze joint accounts

Santander definitely don't, I went through this recently. Just about the only thing DH hadn't thought of was the credit cards, they were cancelled & now I can't get new ones as I'm not working due to caring for him. We could so easily have avoided this.

Thank you @Ghouella I will look into this. They were a nightmare to deal with.

As joint it won't be frozen and their name should I just be taken off account

Once see death certificate

Tho my bank at the time , maybe as stupid and wasn't listening

When dh died I went in and explained he had died and I wanted his name off joint account and the lady there said , he will need to come in and sign saying wants to come off

I said again he's dead a little hard to do that !!!!

She said ask him to come in

I flipped as did my dad who was with me - letter to head q and couple of weeks later I got a bouquet and think £100 to say sorry

Obv she wasn't listening properly

But no account ever was frozen as my money as well

My FIL said the most useful thing he and MIL ever managed to do before she passed away was turning all her personal bank accounts into joint bank accounts. When she died nothing was frozen and everything was just able to be accessed by him.

I am surprised, but also not surprised, by a PP's experience that a joint account was frozen (Lloyds??). It shouldn't happen, but I can believe that it does.

My Dad had to kick a stink up, loudly, in the middle of their local Lloyds branch to get their attention, when they were disrespectful, unhelpful and downright rude to him when he was trying to deal with his own dead mother's bank account.

Sorry to hear your husband is so unwell OP. I would say with 98% certainty that it should be fine, but as PP have said, if you're able to transfer anything out into an account solely in your name, it might be wise.

If you don't have your own personal bank account, try and open one with the same bank as the joint account. They won't have to do all the money-laundering checks on you again and you might find it is opened pretty quickly. I set up a new savings account a little while ago and it was ready to use the next day.

@flowersintheattix so sorry you were messed around. Last thing you need when you are trying to cope with so much. Best wishes to you and yours.

@Toutdessuite also as long as you're the beneficiary and you have access there's no real rush to do things. It took a while for us to get my dad's death cert (post-mortem was needed which delayed things).
When my uncle died my aunt didn't bother telling the bank at all - she just opened an account in her own name, got all the bills changed to her name and transferred the money into her sole account. She waited until probate came through and then just closed the joint account (she did have internet access to it).
So sorry for what you are going through

He’s had a visitor from his bank manager friend, although long retired, I’d forgotten he was a bank manager and he’s suggested turning DH sole account joint so that’s what we are going to do. I’m going to move my sensitive DD’s to my sole account and I won’t tell the bank until I’ve sorted a few things first.

thanks you all so much for your excellent help. Xxx

If you are thinking about this, you have probably also thought about making everything else joint as well, if it isn't already: property, cars, insurance, phone and utility accounts and so on. Also lists of passwords for devices and accounts. It will make things just a little bit easier to have this all sorted when you are going through the worst possible time of your life.

My DH died suddenly, so we had no time to prepare, but when my sister was terminally ill, she and her DH went through and systematically sorted everything to be joint, so when she died, he didn't even had to do probate, as there was hardly anything solely in her name.

My sympathy and courage to you and your DH going through this.

One other thing to check is that he has named you as beneficiary on any pensions or insurance policies.
I’m so sorry you’re having to go through this. I found Mumsnet to be a wealth of knowledge when DH died and I had to deal with all the admin.

When my OH died our joint account remained live.

I'm with Barclays. My DH died in July and they didn't freeze any of our joint accounts (current/savings etc).

Just to clarify, we had no separate accounts at all - all our money was in a joint account so after he died things were very simple financially. If you can create that situation now it will make things easier for you.

I am sorry you are facing this situation.

So sorry you are having to go through this, OP. For you (and anyone else reading), most banks now have a specialist bereavement team. Often branch or call centre staff may not have had any additional training (and I used to work in a bank branch so speaking from experience), but the specialist teams obviously deal with this all the time. So it's really worth asking to be put through to them as it can make such a difference at a difficult time.

When my husband was in his last weeks, we made all our savings accounts joint, and me the primary account holder for all the utilities etc.
Our joint current account needed no attention. When I told the bank he'd died, they simply took his name off and sent me a new cheque book.

Having that planning time made everything very much easier on his death.

I'm sorry you're going through this..

When my Mum died the joint account she had with her partner just reverted to him, it didn't close

If there’s life insurances contact them now as many providers will absolutely pay out at this stage so it’s one less thing to worry about

DM did that when DF died suddenly as well - she was a SAHM, she would have been up shit creek if the joint account had been frozen for six months until probate was granted and life insurance paid out (it was all going to her eventually).

She moved the utility bills into her sole name, moved money out of the joint account and into her sole account, and then told them a couple of weeks down the line when she knew she had herself sorted out.

https://www.gov.uk/bereavement-support-payment/eligibility

https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once

Yes, and you can often find a direct number for them by googling (institution name) and bereavement. I have done this for banks, utility companies and all sorts and it has saved me a lot of time waiting on hold on general numbers (because my call is valuable but all their operatives are busy...) - you usually get straight through, and they don't do stupid and upsetting things like insist the dead person has to contact them to change details.

I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this. Just to add my agreement that you are far better off using the telephone service to speak to the bank’s bereavement team. From administering an estate myself I also noted that even the banks who have most of their customer services offshored have their bereavement teams in the U.K.. I was dreading Santander particularly but the advisor there still stands out in my head as the kindest and most practical person I could have hoped for.

Also things like car insurance - far better to use the bereavement phone lines as they will waive cancellation/policy change charges in the case of bereavement.
I'm so sorry, it's a really difficult time to be dealing with admin, but, when the time comes you might find that the fact that it keeps you busy is a positive thing.