Paypal writes to deceased woman to tell her she's 'in breach of contract' because she died
A recently bereaved husband received a letter sent by PayPal informing him that his late wife is "in breach of contract" because she died.
Howard Durdle posted a copy of the letter PayPal sent to his wife Lindsay after her death from breast cancer on 31 May.
"Dear Mrs Lindsay Durdle, this is a default notice served under section 87(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974," the letter begins. "Your account has an outstanding balance of £3,240.72"
"You are in breach of condition 15.4 (c) of your agreement with PayPal Credit as we have received notice that you are deceased," reads the letter.
"In accordance with condition 15.4 (c), we are entitled to close your account, terminate your agreement and demand repayment of the full amount outstanding," the letter continued.
In a Facebook post, Durdle expressed his distress upon receiving the letter.
"Excuse the language but this is beyond the fucking pale," he wrote. "PayPal — who were informed of Lindsay’s death three weeks ago — have written her a letter threatening action due to her breach of contract for being deceased."
"What the actual fuck. What empathy-lacking machine sent this? Jesus," he added.
Mashable reached out to Durdle but did not hear back immediately.
A PayPal spokesperson told Mashable that they have since apologised and cleared the outstanding debt.
"We apologise unreservedly to Mr Durdle for the understandable distress this letter has caused," the spokesperson said. "As soon as we became aware of this mistake, we contacted Mr Durdle directly to offer our support, cleared the outstanding debt and closed down his wife’s account as he requested."
The spokesperson added that the company is "urgently reviewing" its internal processes to make sure something like this "does not happen again."
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
