Local funeral directors - how to find one
Searching for a local funeral director is not something you day every day and hopefully not one you will need to do very often.
Unless someone recommends a funeral director to you, your first job will be to go online or if you prefer the more traditional Yellow Pages, but how do you choose?
Firstly when searching online make sure you are in the right place, you may search something like "funeral directors town name", just substitute "town name" for your town. When you get the results it's worth making sure you that you select either a recognised organisation such as the National Association of Funeral Directors NAFD (who are the main funeral director trade body that has over 80% of the UKs funeral directors as members which is a positive endorsement) or the name of a local funeral director's company.
Or you can use the funeral director directory that we have created which includes all NAFD and SAIF members all in one place making searching easier.
Hopefully you will find a company that you have heard of even if you have no personal experience of them. If you are looking for a local funeral director's because you have just lost a loved one then whilst it's not a very nice job, ideally you should contact 2 or 3 to get several quotes to compare - you might be surprised at the large difference between them.
Funerals aren't cheap with the average cost around £4,056 in the UK in 2022, but this will depend on where you live and whether you arranging a burial or cremation. A burial will be more expensive particularly if you have to purchase a plot.
If your loved one has made their funeral arrangements known this can save a lot of guess work as to the type of service they wanted, but if they haven't hopefully you will have known them well enough to give them the send off they would have wanted.
You should also check to see if they had purchased a prepaid funeral plan If you are unsure you should check their bank statements and financial paperwork, the main funeral plan companies are highted in our list of FCA authorised funeral plan providers.
Don't be embarrassed about shopping around for funeral quotes, frequently people only contact one company and feel as though they should be selecting one of the more expensive options provided by the funeral director, unless you want this, don't be afraid to choose a less expensive option after all your loved one is unlikely to have wanted you to break the bank on their funeral.
You may wish to start the conversation with the funeral director by telling them that you are contacting a few local directors to get some quotes as this may result in them sharpening their prices.
Finding a local funeral director when you have just lost someone is never an easy task, make a strong cup of tea and take a deep breath and try and approach it like you would other significant purchase, you are likely to be spending over £3,000 so shopping around could save you money.
If you are reading this article and but not looking for a local funeral director right now, you may want to consider putting plans in place in advance. Pre-paying for yours or a loved one's funeral in advance could potentially save you money if prices increase, as you freeze the cost at today's prices.
Here is a list of some of the largest towns and cities:
- funeral directors leeds
- funeral directors liverpool
- funeral directors northampton
- funeral directors cardiff
- funeral directors belfast
- funeral directors london
- funeral directors bournemouth
- funeral director swindon
- funeral directors plymouth
- funeral director glasgow
- funeral director edinburgh
- funeral directors southampton
For reviews on some of the UKs funeral directors, please click here.