UK bereavement contacts·Bank

RBS bereavement: number and forms

Read from RBS’s own page on 16 October 2026 · source: rbs.co.uk

How do I tell RBS that someone has died?

Call RBS on 0800 161 5904 (Monday to Friday 9am–5pm, excluding bank holidays), or tell them online or in person.

Phone: 0800 161 5904. Monday to Friday 9am–5pm, excluding bank holidays. Their own pages give other hours for this line: see below.
Online: Online bereavement form on their bereavement page; you can upload documents with it, or send them later.
Post: Bereavement Services, PO Box 5612, Manchester, M61 0WN. The PO Box is for posting documents from the UK, not for telling them about a death; their business bereavement page does offer a letter to the PO Box for telling them, if you are not the executor or next of kin.
Email: berdocuments@rbs.com (for sending documents only).
In person: Any branch, or a community Banking Hub.
Relay UK: 18001 0800 161 5904. The bereavement line through Relay UK.
From outside the UK: +44 (0)1204 684 659. Given beside the bereavement advisers' number, for calls from outside the UK. Their bereavement pages give hours for the phone line and do not say whether they apply to this number.

Open RBS’s own bereavement page

Every route, with the day we read it

Royal Bank of Scotland: the routes they publish, read from their own pages, with what each is for where they say.
Route	Detail	Read on
Phone	0800 161 5904Monday to Friday 9am–5pm, excluding bank holidays	16 Oct 2026
Online	Online bereavement form on their bereavement page; you can upload documents with it, or send them later	16 Oct 2026
Post	Bereavement Services, PO Box 5612, Manchester, M61 0WNThe PO Box is for posting documents from the UK, not for telling them about a death; their business bereavement page does offer a letter to the PO Box for telling them, if you are not the executor or next of kin.	16 Oct 2026
Email	berdocuments@rbs.com (for sending documents only)	16 Oct 2026
In person	Any branch, or a community Banking Hub	16 Oct 2026
Relay UK	18001 0800 161 5904The bereavement line through Relay UK	16 Oct 2026
From outside the UK	+44 (0)1204 684 659Given beside the bereavement advisers' number, for calls from outside the UK. Their bereavement pages give hours for the phone line and do not say whether they apply to this number	16 Oct 2026
Webchat	Monday to Friday 8am–5pmWebchat with the bereavement team. Outside those hours their page says to chat to Cora, their digital assistant, who can connect you with a colleague if needed.	16 Oct 2026
Post from outside the UK	Bereavement Services, NatWest Bank, Manchester Customer Communications Hub, 1 Hardman Boulevard, Manchester, M3 3AQWhere their page says to post documents from outside the UK.	16 Oct 2026

Different product, different team

These products have their own teams and numbers. Where each number was read is in the Sources list at the foot of this page.

Estate Administration Service: 02920 391019Hugh James Solicitors, RBS’s partner for the Estate Administration Service. Their page gives this number for people already registered for the service, open 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Their estate administration page invites contact on 02920391019, the same digits. Relay UK: 18001 02920 391019.
Rewards (MyRewards): 0345 724 2424To check whether the person earned Rewards. Say 'Rewards' when asked why you are calling. Their page gives lines open Monday to Sunday, 8am to 8pm. Relay UK: 18001 0345 724 2424.
Life insurance claims (Aviva, formerly AIG Life): 0330 390 0511Their 'Manage your life insurance' page gives this number to make a claim under 'Aviva (formerly AIG Life)': Monday to Thursday 9am–6pm, Friday 9am–5.30pm, excluding bank holidays.
Life insurance claims (Aviva): 0800 141 3428The same page gives this number for the 'Aviva Life Insurance Team' to make a claim: Monday to Friday 8.30am–5.30pm and Saturday 8.30am–2pm. Their contact page gives a third number, 0330 390 0512, for help with life insurance (Monday to Friday 8am–7pm, Saturday 10am–3:30pm).

What RBS will ask you for

Have these ready

You do not need to send everything at once. Send only the documents that apply to your situation, and more can follow later.
The death certificate. If you do not have the Registrar’s certificate yet, their page says you can send a Coroner’s Death Certificate, an Interim Death Certificate, a Solicitor Death Verification Form or a Foreign Death Certificate. Their glossary says they accept an original, or a copy certified as a true copy by one of their branches or by a firm of solicitors registered with the Law Society (their glossary does not say which Law Society).
For a death certificate issued outside the UK, their documents-issued-outside-the-UK page asks for the original from the local authorities, with a certified translation if it is in a language other than English. Alternatively, for a certificate issued outside the UK, they can accept a Consular Death Registration Certificate, or a foreign death certificate supported by a UK solicitor’s death verification form. Their bereavement page and sending-documents page also ask for a certified translation when the document comes from outside the UK or is not in English.
The will and any codicil: their page says they need to see the original or a copy of the signed, dated and witnessed will before they can release account information.
Proof of identity and proof of address for the executor, or for the closest next of kin if there is no will or probate. This is one item from each of their lists, such as a signed passport or a UK photocard driving licence, and a recent bank statement or utility bill. For ID documents issued outside the UK, their overseas-documents page adds that if you bank with them already they may not ask for proof of identification, and will write to tell you if it is required.
A grant of probate, letters of administration or, in Scotland, a certificate of confirmation: only if they ask. Their condolence letter says whether they need one.
You may need to complete their account closure form, which needs a BER reference first. It is signed by the next of kin or the executors and can be filled in online or downloaded as a PDF. Section 3 of both versions of the form (29/08/2025 and 13/07/2026) says who signs. If the total in all the person’s sole accounts is under £50,000, an executor named in the will signs, or the immediate next of kin if there is no will. If it is £50,000 or over, all the executors named on the Grant of Representation need to sign.
To pay the funeral from the account: an invoice on the funeral company’s headed paper with the name of the person who died, an itemised list of costs, the total in pounds and BACS payment details.
To pay Inheritance Tax from the account: a completed and signed HMRC form IHT423.

What to write down when you ring

Keep one line per call. If anything goes wrong later, this is what you will be asked for.

The date and time you called
The name of the person you spoke to
Any reference or case number they give you
What they said happens next, and by when

Take this with you

Free: notification letters to send

Letters to tell a bank, building society, insurer or pension provider about a death, ready to fill in. No account, no email needed.

Download the PDF Word versions, and how to fill them in

A blank to fill in yourself. Not legal advice. Written for England and Wales.

Rather have it by email?

Take it with you

Take the notification letters with you.

We'll email you the notification letters as a PDF — for when you're at a printer, or to pass to the person who'll need it. The download above stays free either way.

Where are you in this?

I’ve only been asked to ring them. Then the route in §1 is all you need. Nothing else is asked of you here.
I’m the executor. The Family Handover File (£49, one-off) prepares a ready-to-sign notification letter for each bank, building society, insurer and pension you name, each with an acknowledgement card, and a six-month calendar worked out from your own dates. See The Family Handover File
It’s complicated. The guided walkthrough asks one question at a time and tells you what comes next. Start the walkthrough

What happens after you tell RBS

Their page says phone, webchat and branch are open to next of kin, executors and solicitors. If you are none of these, you can still fill in the online form, but their page says to then ask the closest next of kin or executor to contact RBS, because RBS can only close the estate after speaking with them.

You do not need the death certificate or the will to tell them. Their page says it is fine if you do not have them yet, and they will say what else they need.

If you have already used the Death Notification Service for RBS, their page says you do not need to do anything more for now, and RBS will be in touch.

Once told, they freeze any sole accounts, change any joint account to the survivor’s sole name, cancel direct debits and standing orders, and stop communications addressed to the person who died, though they say some letters or texts addressed to that person may still arrive while they update their records. On a joint account the survivor can carry on using it, and RBS checks any overdraft or other lending linked to it.

Within 10 working days of being told, RBS contact you to explain the next steps: by email if they have your address, otherwise by letter. Their page also says they send a letter acknowledging your notification, with a reference starting BER. Keep it, because you quote it when you send documents.

If there is enough money in the account and they have everything they need, they pay funeral bills within five working days. They pay the funeral director directly and cannot repay a funeral bill you have already paid.

Their page says they can later pay other bills from the account, such as council tax, utility bills, care fees, tax and solicitor fees. They say these payments are typically processed in three to five working days.

Once they have all the documents, they say it takes up to 10 working days to close the accounts and release the money.

Posting documents: their page recommends certified copies, because post is not secure and returns cannot be tracked. They cannot accept original photo ID by post. Add a cover letter with your BER reference, or the full name and account details of the person who died.

Emailing documents: put your BER reference in the subject line. If you do not have one, give the person’s first name, surname and account number and sort code, or the date of death. The address is no-reply, so do not write any text in the email.

To check your identity, RBS may send an email or text from their partner Mitek. You take a selfie and upload photo ID, and proof of address if asked. Solicitors cannot use Mitek and send documents by email or post, or take them to a branch.

If the person held only a credit card with RBS, their credit card help page says to use their online notification service, and you need the 16-digit credit card number to complete the form. If the person was the main cardholder, other cardholders can no longer use their cards.

Their page says Rewards the person earned may belong to the estate, and should be claimed within 90 days of the account closing.

If the person had a business account, RBS has a separate business bereavement page. It gives the same phone number, and offers a letter to the same Manchester postal address for telling them if you are not the executor or next of kin.

Their pages give phone hours for Monday to Friday only; one place on their bereavement page prints 9am-5am, which looks like a typing slip for 5pm. The contact page says the cost of a call depends on the phone line you use, and the bereavement pages do not say the number is free.

If you hold Power of Attorney for the next of kin, their answer says they need to see a Grant of Probate document before they can discuss the estate with you, and names no Scottish equivalent there.

A cheque the person wrote and that is presented after you have told RBS is returned unpaid to the payee; cheques payable to the executor or personal representative should normally be paid into an Executors Account.

What RBS does not publish, and where its own pages disagree

Not published

RBS publishes no email address for telling them about a death; the only bereavement email is for sending documents. We checked their bereavement page, the Get in touch page, the sending-documents page, the documents-issued-outside-the-UK page, the 2026 bereavement guide, both versions of the account closure form, the business bereavement page, the contact page and the credit card bereavement help page on 16 October 2026.
RBS publishes no statement that the bereavement line is free to call. We checked their bereavement page, the Get in touch page, the 2026 bereavement guide, the contact page and the call charge information page on 16 October 2026.
RBS publishes no separate number or team for telling them about a death on a mortgage. We checked their bereavement page, the contact page, and the manage-your-mortgage, mortgage support and One Account pages on 10 October 2026.
RBS publishes no separate number for telling them about a death on a credit card. We checked their bereavement page, their credit card bereavement help page, the contact page and the manage-your-credit-card page on 10 October 2026.
RBS publishes no statement on whether NatWest or Ulster Bank accounts must be told separately. We checked their bereavement page, the sending-documents page, the documents-from-outside-the-UK page, the Get in touch page and the business bereavement page on 16 October 2026.

The amount below which a grant is not needed

Both versions of RBS’s account closure form (RBS201430, 29/08/2025 and 13/07/2026): Under £50,000 left in accounts in the person’s name only: no Grant of Representation needed. £50,000 or over: a grant is needed. Separately, the glossary on RBS’s business bereavement page gives the grant test as total balances 'over £50K' (or safe custody held, or a grant already being applied for).

The 'Indemnifying Letter' entry in the glossary on RBS’s personal bereavement page: release of funds without a grant 'when the total balances held are under £50' (printed as £50, with no K or 000).