Can you withdraw money from a deceased person's bank account? (UK)

29 August 2026 · Inherit Vault

The card usually still works. That's the trap. A debit card doesn't stop the moment its owner dies, so for days or weeks the money looks reachable. Every pound that comes out is a pound somebody may have to explain later.

The short answer

No, not from a cash machine. Money in a sole-name account belongs to the estate from the moment of death, not to the family. Citizens Advice puts it plainly: it's usually against the law to take money from the estate before you have probate or letters of administration. Being next of kin doesn't change that. Neither does being named in the will. Neither does everyone in the family agreeing it's fine.

Being the executor doesn't come with a bank card

An executor's authority comes from the will, and the bank wants it confirmed first. So the sequence runs: tell the bank, the account gets frozen for outgoing payments, a date-of-death balance arrives, then a grant of probate unlocks the money. Until that lands, the executor has the same access to the cash machine as anybody else. None. Here's how long that usually takes.

A power of attorney dies with the person

This is the one that catches careful families. An LPA lets you manage someone's money while they're alive, and only while they're alive. The Office of the Public Guardian's practice note on notification of death is blunt about it: a registered lasting or enduring power is revoked by the donor's death, and the Public Guardian must cancel it. Your authority ends at the death, not when the paperwork catches up. An attorney who keeps paying bills or drawing cash after that has no authority at all, and can be personally liable to repay the estate. The two documents cover completely different periods.

The funeral: the exception, used properly

Funerals need paying long before probate arrives. The system allows for that. It just doesn't allow for a withdrawal. Ask the funeral director to invoice the estate, then send that invoice to the bank. Most banks and building societies will pay the director direct from the frozen account, and will release money for probate fees and inheritance tax too. Nothing else, until a grant is issued. Same money, entirely different legal position, because the bank paid it rather than you.

Joint accounts follow different rules

If the account was in joint names, the survivor carries on using it. The balance passes by survivorship rather than through the estate, so no grant is needed and no freeze applies. HMRC still wants a share counted. GOV.UK's valuation guidance says to value a joint bank account by dividing the balance by the number of holders, unless it was joint for convenience only. The full picture is here.

The £5,000 rule people half-remember

There is a real small-payments threshold, and it's usually misquoted. The Administration of Estates (Small Payments) Act 1965 set the limit at £5,000, but only for the funds listed in its schedule: National Savings products, friendly society holdings, certain pension arrears. It's not a general right to empty a current account. What people actually meet is bank policy. Each bank sets its own bereavement threshold and pays out below it on a signed indemnity, no grant needed. The figures vary enormously, so ask yours.

What happens if money comes out anyway

Usually a demand, not a courtroom. The bank reverses what it can and asks for the rest back. The criminal framing does exist, though. Using a dead person's card implies to the machine that you're the authorised holder, and section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 covers dishonestly making a false representation, expressly including one made to a machine. Prosecutions are rare and tend to follow large or repeated amounts. Repayment demands aren't rare at all. We've covered the card question on its own.

HMRC looks at both sides of the date of death

Emptying an account hides nothing. Valuation works from the balance on the date of death, confirmed in writing by the bank. Anything taken out afterwards is still estate money, and still counted. Money moved out before death gets caught by the gift rules instead. A gift is a potentially exempt transfer, and HMRC's inheritance tax manual is clear: if the donor dies within seven years, the exemption is lost and the gift is added back to the death estate. So a £20,000 transfer three months before a death changes nothing about the tax. It just adds a paper trail your executor has to explain.

The order that actually works

Register the death and buy several certified copies of the certificate, because everyone wants one. Notify the banks, using the Death Notification Service where they take part. Ask each for the date-of-death balance in writing. Send the funeral invoice straight to the bank. Ask about their bereavement threshold before assuming you need a grant. Apply for probate if the answers say you do.

None of that is the hard part. The hard part is knowing which accounts existed at all. It's why families end up trawling card statements for clues, and why some money is never claimed. A written list of where the money sits, somewhere your executor can reach, takes an evening now and saves weeks later.