Bereavement or serious illness

Let lenders help by letting them know

If a partner, a relative or a close friend dies, the last thing on your mind is sorting out the finances. Similarly, if someone close to you is taken seriously ill, you are more likely to be concerned with visiting them in hospital than making sure the bills are paid.

When someone dies

When someone dies, it can save a lot of sorting out later on if you at least make sure that anyone to whom payments should be made is notified of the situation. It will help if you write a note explaining that you will be in touch later to find out what else needs doing.

Lenders have sometimes been accused of callous behaviour when they have chased debts left by people who have died. And this can cause anguish for a bereaved family. But unless someone tells them, lenders won't know what the situation is. They will be sympathetic if they are informed right from the start and regularly kept in the picture.

When someone is ill

When someone is seriously ill, he or she may not be in a position to make payments, or even remember what needs paying. You will be doing the sick person a huge favour if you help them avoid getting into arrears.

The trouble is, of course, that we often do not know what bills are paid regularly or how. We may not even realise that we might be jointly liable for a debt or that joint financial arrangements mean that our partner's or a family member's inability to pay through death or illness can affect us at a later stage.

A credit reference file shows what credit accounts are active and lists those held by people with the same surname at the same address. A copy of the file can, therefore, often help you see what needs to be paid.

What you can do now

All of us would like to be well organised, but the day-to-day business of work and home life often gets in the way. It is when tragedy strikes that the real value of record keeping is revealed.

So don't let your own death or illness cause even more grief for your family and friends. Make a will and make a list of what financial commitments you have, who they are with, how much needs to be paid and when. Make sure it's always up-to-date and keep it with a copy of your credit reference file. In this way, if you are taken into hospital, or you die, someone can quickly and easily sort things out for you and make sure that the lenders involved know what the situation is.

You might also want to explain to members of your family and close friends how an up-to-date copy of their credit reference file, a will and a list of financial commitments can be used in this way. If you are to be the person sorting out their affairs, in the unhappy event of their death or long-term illness, then you will be helped if these documents are readily available.