Funeral Plans

Yes it is completely usual standard practice

Re paying for a funeral out of the person's own funds, with my mother we found that her bank would not release the money, but said the bill should be forwarded to them and they would pay it.

The funeral directors seemed quite happy with this, so it must be quite a usual thing.

Have just taken out a funeral plan myself. Feel quite happy to have it done and dusted .When my husband died i was shocked quite honestly at the cost.How can a cardboard coffin cost more than a basic wooden one i do not know.Anyway this plan has proved £1000 cheaper and whether i die next year or 10 years time i have the satisfaction of knowing it will save my children some grief.

I have taken out pre paid funeral with Age UK. We could only afford to pay for one but paying an extra 75.00 means it is for who ever goes first. Hopefully by the time the another one is needed, there will be sufficent money in the bank to pay for the next funeral. Payment included everything including cars but no flowers.

I've got an incurable cancer so thought I'd do a funeral plan. I looked about and decided on Pure Cremation rather than the 'normal' expected arrangement. It's £1595 if you pay in advance. They collect you from your place of demise, take you to a crematorium and hand your ashes over afterwards to a family member if you want or they will scatter your ashes in their garden of rememberance. There's no formal service. I don't want to hang around in a queue for weeks waiting for a service in a place that means nothing to me, held by a person who doesn't know me, in a religion that means nothing to me. My daughter can arrange a party any time she fancies where she wants and have my ashes on the table (suitably wrapped!) she can have people we know talk about me and play music I liked. She can even have a cake in the shape of my favourite irregular choice shoes. And as for flowers, I'd rather people sent some to people who are important to them who are still alive. It'll be a celebration. If it was good enough for David Bowie it'll be good enough for me!

daphne

When my Step-MiL died about 6 years ago she had a prepaid funeral plan. I think it was with the Co-op and was paid for with a lump sum years before. It covered everything and my FiL has the same plan. As someone mentioned, inflation was taken care of as part of the policy.

As I mentioned earlier we're looking at Pure Cremation, but I will be calling it Click and Collect from now on. We don't have children and want to make things as simple as possible for who ever has to sort things out for us.

My aunt died a few months ago, having moved 150 miles away from where she had taken out her funeral plan with a local firm. In the stress of moving, she had neglected to contact the firm and her children were faced with reclaiming the money she had paid previously and adding extra to it to cover the rise in prices since the plan was taken out. I have always thought a plan a good thing as both my parents had them and it saved a lot of problems when they died. However that experience has made me think that a plan with a national firm might be a better bet?
Condolences to you daphnedill.

Thank you all for the and condolences.

It's been a funny kind of day. The funeral director rang me and went through exactly what I have to do and confirm what's going to happen.

It's certainly taken off some of the pressure at a time when there are so many thoughts going round my head and I'm physically and mentally exhausted.

I don't know how much my mother paid nor how much everything would have cost to arrange separately, so I'm not sure if it's "good value", but it's been worth it so far.

independent financial adviser I have had cause to trust suggested prepayment of funeral plan two years ago to make things easier for my adult children in due course.

The cost of a standard funeral since then has gone up about a third so I'm glad I did it. Also they will now have less hassle sorting everything out as can liaise with funeral directors from day one.

MIL died last year and we knew it would be a small funeral so we chose a Simple Funeral at the crematorium. The funeral director was excellent (small newish firm), we had the small chapel where there is no organ so the Crem found the hymns we wanted. The funeral director charged £999.99 (didn't include the newspaper notice). I typed and photocopied the funeral service and did the catering afterwards at our house. The service was taken by a friend of MIL.

We've both decided on a back door cremation with the ashes being returned to the family to be scattered somewhere on the Norfolk Broads, with a party or dinner afterwards. Not a funeral at all.

We asked about leaving our bodies to medical science but apparently so many people are doing it nowadays they're getting picky. You have to die of something interesting!

We went to a friend's funeral today. There seems to be a lot of pressure now for close family members to speak (preferably two and very emotional). Much angst about choosing music, hymns, etc and at the graveside it wasn't enough to just have close family sprinkle a little soil, all the family (there were quite a few) had a rose to throw in and a piece of paper with "last thoughts" written on. I felt that like weddings and christenings it was getting a bit commercialised.

I did a golden charter plan with a funeral director for both of my uncles about 5 years before they both passed away. It was very successful. We paid the full amount that was required at the outset. When it came to the time of both of them passing away (2 years between each other) everything was already paid for including the cars so we had no worries about anything. I can't speak for the other funeral plans that you are referring to but I would definitely recommend the Golden Charter one.

Nudejude just Google Pure Cremation.

There will be money left for our funerals but I am not doing any plan. Whatever DH or the kids chose for me will be fine. They will be told not to waste a lot of cash on funeral but have cremation rather than burial. The only other thing I would like is replica of my wedding bouquet as only flowers.

Who do I contact to find out about a 'Click & Collect' funeral?

According to my solicitor, you can still be buried in your garden today, but have to seek permission from the local waterways people presumably in case you body leaches something nasty into the water, lol.

Hugs to all those who have lost loved ones recently, wish I could take your pain away.

My DH died just over 4 years ago, he had 2 Life Insurance Policies (I still have mine, index linked) which covered the cost of his Funeral, I'm hoping mine will do the same when my time comes.

When DH was diagnosed with Terminal Cancer, given about 8 months to live (only lived for 2 months) & too weak for treatment, I went to see a local Funeral Director, local firm who were highly recommended. I had a long chat & found out about cost so I was prepared. I notified the Nursing Home (they did ask if I knew which Funeral Director I was using). Funeral Director was brilliant, took me to register the Death, my DD came with me to finalise arrangements. No hassle for me at all, I just hope it's so easy for DD when my time comes.

My DM has given me a letter to open when she dies (she's 88) & also left instructions with her friends/neighbours for immediate instructions as I live 300 miles away, she's organised, must not be planning to depart any time soon as she's planning for her 90th Birthday

Mine will be PAYG. My mortal remains won't be wanting anything fancy, cars and whatnot, just a simple dispatch to the crem and then casting to the four winds or whatever. My family knows that and I'm sure they'll come up with something creative and end up crying with laughter!

My dad had funeral plane which was OK but because he was the youngest of a large family all the others had already passed on, friends were too old or had died, I felt the amount of people there did him no justice he was a lovely man, just outlived so many of those who loved him.

Getting my kids to travel from all over the place would mean one of them had to do the organising and having just done all that for dad, I wanted to spare them. I did dad's service myself....I do not want any send off as such, so click and collect at just under 2 grand was ideal for me. When I die the kids just have to ring the number on the card............

I'm a member of a W.I. group and we had an amazingly interesting speaker at one of our meetings, she spoke about funerals, not necessarily funeral plans, but the following would be really helpful. She is [email protected]
It is worth going for an Independent funeral company, a local family firm is the one to go for.
Read up on this website, www.naturaldeath.org.uk
lots of really useful information about saving costs, and lets face it at a time of bereavement we don't want the added stress of ending up in debt due to being taken advantage of.
There are things on there about saving costs from what time of day you book a cremation; early in the morning is cheaper than afternoon etc etc.
I really must carry on with planning my funeral! I don't want my family spending money unnecessarily!

Love the click and collect ! that is the plan I have too ...visited four different funeral parlours for a quote from each ....wrote to Laboratoire D'Analyses to donate body to medical research ....was told it would cost E 250 to collect, had to have no operations or (obviously) notifiable diseases, and that body would be returned to family who would then have to pay for funeral !....and the point is ?? Tried the woodland burial ....communicant has to travel from Paris (nearest one) 600k away ..transport has to be paid and accommodation .....no way ! Used to be acceptable to bury in ones garden but no longer allowed .....chose cardboard biodegradable coffin with daisies printed on it ....sorry, not allowed ...Why ???? it is only going up in flames ! So have instructed my funeral plan co to click and collect with NOTHING else ! After all I am not going to know about it and as I have no family or anyone who wishes to watch me depart, that suits me !! I pay for a basic plan each month so no one else will have to pay (they always trace distant relatives etc from here until they find someone to pay !) ......

My late dad bless him had a Co op Funeral plan, which took care of everything ...this was a blessing as back in the day I was a single parent with no money and could not have paid for anything without getting into debt, so I was able to give him a funeral he would have liked , flowers, catering and even the Rent a Vicar at the Crem )he was not a church goer)...unfortunately despite my giving the RaV copious notes on my dad, his likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc he got his NAME wrong ..called him Ted instead of Joe ...so I had to hiss loudly from the front row ....................my dad would have found that amusing !!

Sorry to all those who have recently lost loved ones......it gets easier as time goes by !

Caroline these are not options open to everyone so we have to base decisions on what's appropriate.

My unmarried aunt paid £1,100 for her pre-paid funeral plan in the mid 1990s - just basic, no cars as I said we all have cars, and she was always an advocate for saving money. When she died 4 years ago aged 94 it would have cost more than double that. She had what she wanted and it made the process much easier for us. DH & I are now paying for our funerals with the Co-Op - the best deal we could find and we are paying for it monthly over 24 months for a small amount of interest, rather than take a lump sum out of our diminishing savings. We just wanted to make it easier for our DC.

I am afraid that personally I find the idea of paying £ks to Funeral Directors anathema! Medical Science 1st choice and if they don't want me then simply buried here on our farm. Private and personal.

I thought you said a while ago that wanted to drift down the Severn GALEN?

I want my ashes scattered at sea. Think I'll leave money for some one to go on a cruise to take them to the Med to scatter them.
Has to be on Cunard though!