My dear wife passed away in December last year. Like me, she only had her state pension to live on. She had a loan with lender Creation Finance that she had taken out more than two years earlier.
I contacted its call centre and spoke to a very uncaring, unsympathetic person who told me I would have to take over my late wife’s debt or I would end up in court.
I started paying off the loan but the repayments meant I was really struggling to make ends meet.
I contacted the Citizens Advice Bureau which told me to stop paying it and to ask Creation cloned cards for sale a refund of the £561 I have paid towards the loan, unnecessarily.
I contacted Creation but ten months on I am still waiting for my money. Can you help?
M. S., united kingdom passport Kent.
Grieving: A reader is still waiting for a refund from loan company Creation after he was mistakenly told he was legally required to pay off his late wife’s debt
Sally Hamilton replies: I was horrified to read of your dealings with Creation and I find it extraordinary that you were given such shamelessly wrong information.
You would only have had to make payments if the debt was taken out jointly or you acted as a guarantor — neither of which was the case here.
This incorrect advice meant you were put under huge financial strain at what was already an extremely difficult time.
I made contact with Creation and asked for it to put right these wrongs as a matter of urgency.
After my involvement, the firm helped you to provide the information it needed to verify the refund, although you told me that you’d already sent a copy of your wife’s death certificate to Creation three times as part of this process.
The refund has now been made and although Creation maintains it cannot find recordings of the calls you made at the outset, it has made a payment of £150 as an apology for your experience.
You were very relieved to have your money back after such a long wait and glad you can finally put the matter behind you.
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Dealing with finances after the death of a loved one is stressful, buy novelty passport says Lorraine Charlton, debt expert at Citizens Advice, who adds: ‘You’re not usually liable for the debts of someone who has died, unless the debt was taken out jointly with you or you acted as a guarantor.
The exceptions to this are council tax and water charges, which you may be liable for if you were the partner of the deceased or shared accommodation with them.
‘In all other cases, debt reduces the estate of the person who has died.
‘If there is not enough money in the estate to pay the debt, the creditors cannot recover the debt from anyone else.’