Safe Hands Funeral Plans Reviews 

184
TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

1.5

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Absolutely disgusting company scammed my parents of £8000 well Larry Bergin did by cold calling on her. on there documents when my mum first took policy it says there protected with FCA but now when... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

My wife took out the pearl plan with safe hands, paying in full the 3070 pounds. We found out today, whilst at her chosen funeral directors, that nearly half of this amount goes on administation costs... See more

Company replied

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Took out a funeral plan with Safe Hands several years ago, which I paid for in full. Looks like the company were sailing very "close to the wind" with their management of customers' money and got... See more

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

I would like to say a very heartfelt thank you to you all. I spoke to Deme and Kyle. Truly exceptional service. I live over in France , which made an already heartbreaking time, even sadder, when... See more

Company details

  1. Funeral Home
  2. Price Comparison Site

Information provided by various external sources

Safe Hands are one of the UK's most established and prominent providers of pre paid funeral plans. Our plans are sold almost exclusively via our national network of carefully trained independent will writers, estate planners and IFA's. We are also approved members of the Funeral Planning Authority. We work with funeral directors covering all areas of the UK, the overwhelming majority of which are members of the Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors and/or National Association of Funeral Directors.


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1.5

Bad

TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

184 reviews

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1.5

All reviews

(184)

1 review in the last 12 months

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Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Excellent. You can take out the plan at any age - there are no age restrictions so they allow younger people to make arrangements which is really reassuring.

June 16, 2017
Unprompted review
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Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Thanks for your feedback Jon, The savings that are made for those that who take out a plan at a younger age is more substantial than for those in the very latter years and most people don't consider their own funeral until later on in life but this trend is starting to change.

We are seeing an ever reducing average age of those taking out a Safe Hands Funeral Plan and it's good to hear that you've found our age policies reassuring when choosing us as your provider.

Thank you for your valuable input and if we can assist at any time, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

The person l spoke to was very friendly …

The person l spoke to was very friendly and helpful. He talked me through everything in great detail. He also had the answers to the few questions l had. Very professional service.

June 13, 2017
Unprompted review
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Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Thank you for your kind words Mrs Mclaughlan. It's good to know that our professionalism filters down through to the you, the customer. Being friendly and helpful is a mantra we instil in all employees and partners so we're grateful you highlighted this aspect of your experiences.

if you would like to speak with our client services team at any point, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Good investment

One less worry for loved ones to deal with.

June 13, 2017
Unprompted review
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Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Thank you for your feedback Mrs Pilgrim. That's the reason the majority of our clients take out a plan! Obviously, there's the financial savings you make but the peace of mind and comfort a Funeral Plan brings, knowing that your family don't have to find the funds, at a time, which is already difficult enough, is the aspect most of out clients say what their Safe Hands Plan means to them.

If we can help with anything else, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Easy to understand!

Easy to understand, even for me!!!!!
Very nice staff, easy going and understanding. No problems at all.

June 13, 2017
Unprompted review
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Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Thank you for you kind words and we're pleased you found the process straight forward and easy to understand. Please contact us if you require and further information about any aspect of your plan and all the best for the future,

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Initial Discussions

Initial discussions on which plan to take were very easy to understand

June 13, 2017
Unprompted review
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Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

We're pleased you found the information you received was simple and clear. We pride ourselves on how straight forward our plan options are, so it's nice to hear this kind of feedback of this nature. All the best for the future and If we can help at any stage, please don't hesitate to contact our administration team. Thank you for your custom and support..

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

wonderful helpful

Excellant service thank you

June 12, 2017
Unprompted review
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Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Thank you for the positive feedback Mrs Whyte. If we can be of any further assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Was easy to do very informative …

Was easy to do very informative explained everything all the way through

June 8, 2017
Unprompted review
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Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Good to hear Andy. If you need any other aspects explaining at any point in the future, don't hesitate to contact our offices and thank you for your valued business.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

the salesman was very helpful

the salesman was very helpful all through purchase of two plans for myself and my wife.The cost and the added extras were great.

June 7, 2017
Unprompted review
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Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Thank you for feedback Mr Billington and we appreciate you acknowledging our prices and the additions that we provide above and beyond some of the other plan providers. If we can help at any stage, please don't hesitate to contact our administration team and many thanks for your valued custom.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I Took out a Ruby plan with Safe Hands …

I Took out a Ruby plan with Safe Hands Through Damsons Future Planningin September 2016. I paid £99 deposit & after receiving & signing relative documents I paid by debit card Remaining £4001 a total of £4500 & thought piece of mind for My Wife & Family ? O NO Chris Walsh the Chap who sold Me my plan Though sworn to secrecy in Regard to My Wife.Phoned My Wife & asked Her would She like The same policy as Her Husband ? The air was BLUE as She pointed out She was only 38yrs Old & I was 62 She had NO thoughts on A funeral plan ? I phoned Chris the following day & pointed out that we had a Gentlemans agreement that He would not contact any of My family He apologised & again I thought that was That O NO Whilst I was in Hospital from 12/ 12/ 17 I gave My debit card to My wife & asked Her to withdraw £ 200 so I could by things for myself from the small shop. On Her next visit She informed Me My Bank account was overdrawn ? I was discharged from Hospital 29/12/17 & next day recieved a statement from The Bank "Safe Hands" had been taking out monthly payments of £288.45. I phoned the company & damsons & was told it was a mistake & it would be rectified I pointed out that because they had taken money wrongly since November I had missed 2 monthly payments on an insurance policy my Mam had taken out on Me since birth It had been cancelled ? No reply they did send Me a cheque for the £4500 minus £350 cancellation When I pointed out that they owed Me 4 monthly payments also they told Me it was payments for My Wife Lesley's Plan ? but She had not signed or agreed a plan ? I have spent over 10 hours on phone conversation's & sent Emails Texts I have even sent My bank statement to show they have not paid Me back Despite what There CEO told Lee Taylor of Damsons Future Planning. Both Companies are CHARLATANS. & In My mind THIEVE'S & Should Be Closed down & there asset's Ceased

April 4, 2017
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Impressed

Both myself and my wife have taken out funeral plans with Safe hands ..... We found the experience we encountered with Darrel . To be very professional l ... Also pleasure to deal with him .... We were impressed enough to recommend safe hands to a close friend ...Who went on to take out her own funeral plan with Darrel... Darrel visited her at home... as she has mobility problems She was also very impressed with safe hands

February 27, 2017
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Not Happy with this company

We took out a Pearl plan for my husband , £2945 on the 5th January 2016 and he passed away on the 14th. They then took a fee of £750, from that amount giving the undertaker £2195. This then left me with a bill for £200 for the removal of my husbands body to the chosen crematorium, this they tried to blame on the undertaker, who believe me was very cheap anyway.
I wrote to them several times over the year, always had letters full of waffle, and also like the other reviewer, there were mistakes in the original plan.
Due to my continuing ill health and the grief of losing my husband I have not chased this as much as I would have normally. My last letter was 5th October when I said they were in breach of contract, I had a letter dated 12th Oct saying I would receive a reply by 21st, 6th Nov still no reply and I had to chase, final letter 10th Nov.
Again , full of waffle. My issue has always been this, NO WHERE in the plan does it say about an admin charge or percentage. I accept normally there would be but it should state it and customers should be aware. £750. Is way too much. And the company still does not come out and state this, just goes round and round with words. Buyers beware.

January 3, 2017
Unprompted review
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Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Firstly, it is important to point out that we have enormous sympathy for Mrs Baldwin following the loss of her late husband. Ordinarily we would deal with a ‘complaint’ of this nature privately (which, it should be pointed out, we have attempted to do through written, professional, correspondence directly with Mrs Baldwin). However, given that Mrs Baldwin has publicised her grievance online, we hope that she understands that in providing a public response as we are now forced to do, for the benefit of those reading (people with possibly no understanding of funeral plans and the way funeral planning companies work, let alone Mrs Baldwin’s personal situation), it is necessary for us to use purely factual language and rhetoric, which may lack the personalised and sympathetic tone that private correspondence allows (and which we, as a professional, conscientious, and sympathetic company operating in a highly sensitive industry, prefer).

Mrs Baldwin’s main grievance seems to be the fact that Safe Hands Funeral Plans retained £750 from the sum paid by her for her husband’s funeral plan. Here, at Safe Hands Funeral Plans, we work on the same premise as every other funeral plan company, in that an element of the monies paid by a customer for their plan is retained by the company to cover its own costs (as is made clear in our Terms & Conditions, which are in turn provided to all customers at the point of sale). The fact that we retain £750 from the price of a plan, under no circumstances should be taken to mean that the standard and quality of the funeral provided to the customer by the funeral director will be any less – instead, it means that the funeral director agrees to undertake the funeral at a cost that is, potentially, lower than he/she might otherwise charge were a customer to approach him/her directly.

When buying a funeral plan – be it one from Safe Hands Funeral Plans, or from any other provider – a customer essentially fixes the price of the funeral services covered by their chosen plan product. This means that regardless of however long the customer lives, or however expensive the funeral services covered by the chosen plan product happen to be when the customer passes away, there won’t ever be anything further to pay towards them. And that is exactly what Mrs Baldwin achieved when she purchased her late husband’s funeral plan – she fixed the price of the services she paid for and that were covered within the specification of the particular plan she chose. Any other costs charged by the funeral director were for aspects over and above those that were covered by the plan.

It is also important bear in mind that, very sadly, Mrs Baldwin’s late husband passed within 6 months of the plan being purchased. Normally, there would be many years/decades between someone buying a plan and them actually passing away. Had Mrs Baldwin’s husband passed away many years in the future (when funeral costs will almost certainly be into tens of thousands of pounds), firstly, under the terms of the Safe Hands Funeral Plan Guarantee (which applies to every Safe Hands Funeral Plan) Mrs Baldwin wouldn’t have been expected to pay anything further towards the funeral director’s fees and services, and secondly, the £750 that we retain as a company to cover the costs of selling the plans, managing the funds, and coordinating our operations with funeral directors, would have felt far less significant to her.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Insufficient attention to detail and unfulfilled promises

While organising two funeral plans for relatives of mine who are not in a position to do so themselves, there were errors made on the forms that I was sent compared to what was relayed to the agents on the telephone, While this was understandable, I corrected these errors by hand and was advised that these would be altered to suit. You can imagine how shocked I was when I received these hand-marked photocopies within the formal funeral plan - how could I show these marked up copies to other family members?.The agents apologised and advised me hat this was not how Safe Hands takes care of these matters and, among other promises, advised that a Director of Safe Hands would call me personally to assure me that the level of service I had received was not representative of how the funeral plans would be executed. Needless to say, none of these promises have been met. How can I be sure of anything that they say - despite the recommendation from celebrities? Let's hope that when these plans are carried out that they do meet the standards that they espouse - but I am not confident.

December 30, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Extremely easy to work with

I have referred customers to Safe Hands now for nearly a year as one of my Prepaid Funeral providers. I dont normally write reviews unless a company really stands out.

In this case they really do!!

From a company aspect - It is great to hear your customers feed back that the Safe Hands customer service is great and that they solve queries quiclky and effortlessly. I know that if I recommend a plan from Safe Hands to my customers they will continue to service my customers how I would want.

Its also worth noting that they also mirror this service when dealing with their marketing agents. Top class product with easy and detailed systems to maintain and monitor the progress of all my clients(Also meaning I can do MY JOB better).

Thanks Guys - Paul - Gardner & Hicks Associates Ltd

November 25, 2016
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

peace of mind.

My advisor was great, such a relief knowing this is in place. Would recommend this company!

October 19, 2016
Unprompted review
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Reply from Safe Hands Funeral Plans

Hi Trudy,

We are glad you had a positive service with Safe Hands Funeral Plans, don't forget if you need to update your special requests or contact details on your plan, don't hesitate to contact us and we can do it free of charge.

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