Has anyone else had problems with getting certificates from York? I've just tried to order a death certificate. They have no online service. However do they expect people from overseas to use their services? I telephoned and was told that if I wanted to pay on my credit card, only the express service was available on this payment route so the charge was £16. I was not bothered about an express service so was told I could write BUT big snag - they don't take cheques. Payment via this route is £10. The only payment  via the post they accept is postal orders. How archaic is this! Chris

Hi Chris I can't speak for how York works , but you could use the GRO online certificate service - £9.25 inc postage to order any certificate from any registration district (except recent events within the last 6-18 months where the Local Regster office has to be used) http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp They accept Credit and Debit cards. You have to set up an account, with password, but that is quite painless :) Lin PLEASE REMOVE NAMES & email ADDRESSES BEFORE FORWARDING. USE THE Bcc BOX FOR YOUR NAMES & ADDRESSES WHICH WILL HELP ELIMINATE UNWANTED EMAILS On 03/09/2012 17:43, CHRISTINE WILLOTT wrote: > Has anyone else had problems with getting certificates from York? I've just tried to order a death certificate. They have no online service. However do they expect people from overseas to use their services? I telephoned and was told that if I wanted to pay on my credit card, only the express service was available on this payment route so the charge was £16. I was not bothered about an express service so was told I could write BUT big snag - they don't take cheques. Payment via this route is £10. The only payment via the post they accept is postal orders. How archaic is this! > > Chris > ..... > Ancestors in Yorkshire? http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/index.html; > www.ryedalefamilyhistory.org; www.wharfedalefhg.org.uk; > www.yorkshireparishregisters.com; www.yorkshireroots.org.uk; > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to YORKSGEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >

Hi Chris and all, I have found a similar thing with the Leeds District Probate Registry. I only wish I had had Lin's knowledge prior to ordering through them. It was simply because those were the names at the bottom of the information, so I assumed that it was where I had to apply for those particular wills. Never thought to look at GRO to see. Those are the traps for young players, I guess. How does one find out these things apart from learning from experience? Is there some sort of "Strategies for newcomers" site with this information stockpiled?! After debating for a while on wasting people's space, I have decided to copy into this message what I wrote to Leeds at the end of July. This might help overseas members like myself decide whether or not to take this route. It is a long one, once the postal times are factored in. I am still waiting for my documents, but I expect them fairly soon. Thanks, Lin, for your advice for future reference. Hello I am sending a bit of feedback with this order in the hope that it will be of assistance. I don’t know how many overseas customers you have using your will ordering service, but I should imagine it is quite a number and definitely likely to grow in the future. At this stage, your system is, may I say, very clumsy and off-putting. I shall put it in point form. 1. The bottom line is that an online process, such as GRO uses, would be infinitely better. 2. I found the advice from Fajda over the phone very helpful and thank her again for it! 3. The fact was, though, I had to make a phone call from Australia to clarify a point which related to the costs of my purchases. 4. There is not even an email address to which such a small request could have been addressed. 5. The description of costs is ambiguous: “The fee is £6 for a copy of a grant and/or will…” I ASSUMED that meant for both, if both existed, but it was only an assumption. A lawyer relative reached the same conclusion, i.e. that is was impossible to decide whether I would be paying £6 or £12. 6. This is pertinent, as I needed to know the total cost in order to arrange payment to send with the order forms. Hence, in the absence of any other way to have the question answered (except a week or two by ordinary mail) I had to make the phone call to find out. 7. The forms themselves are of no help, as there is no automatic ongoing cost totalled, as in most online systems, so I couldn’t be reassured that way that I had calculated correctly. 8. Perhaps you are halfway to putting it all online, as the form was such that it could be written on, signed and stored electronically. But that was of no use to anybody, as the money had to be sent, so I still had to print out each of the five forms. 9. It is quite a process to get an international money order, as I discovered yesterday. My bank had the best option, but more expensive. They sent me to the Post Office, who could provide a cheaper service, but it required the £35 go through Western Union, and you would have had to pick up the money at some WU office nearby! To save you this bother, I paid the extra and went back to the bank option, which is enclosed. 10. I do have a cheque account, which I now rarely use, but you will understand that for an overseas customer, cheques are in the wrong currency and would lead to other complications. 11. Hence, what could (should?) have been a simple process, completed in perhaps half an hour or more with 5 orders, became a protracted event involving an international phone call for clarification of your instructions, printing out of 5 forms even though they could be completed online including with my signature, which I didn’t bother with, a lengthy hunt to discover the cheapest but also most helpful method of payment, and finally, today, postage on the whole show, which will not reach you for another week, probably. I hope you can see why I described it initially as clumsy. 12. May I suggest that someone does a “trial run” from the perspective of someone overseas. It is hard to visualise these things if you are not directly having to use the procedure. I hope this has been of some help to you. Thank you for what I am sure (judging by Fajda’s willing attitude) you will do for me with these orders. Yours sincerely, Patsy Crotty 11/88 Addison Street, Elwood, Victoria, Australia 28 July 2012 -----Original Message----- From: yorksgen-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:yorksgen-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of CHRISTINE WILLOTT Sent: Tuesday, 4 September 2012 2:43 AM To: YORKSGEN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [YORKSGEN] York registry office Has anyone else had problems with getting certificates from York? I've just tried to order a death certificate. They have no online service. However do they expect people from overseas to use their services? I telephoned and was told that if I wanted to pay on my credit card, only the express service was available on this payment route so the charge was £16. I was not bothered about an express service so was told I could write BUT big snag - they don't take cheques. Payment via this route is £10. The only payment  via the post they accept is postal orders. How archaic is this! Chris ..... Ancestors in Yorkshire? http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/index.html; www.ryedalefamilyhistory.org; www.wharfedalefhg.org.uk; www.yorkshireparishregisters.com; www.yorkshireroots.org.uk; ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to YORKSGEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Patsy I suspect there is a little confusion here Wills are handled by the Probate Service completely separate to the birth, marriage and death certificates which are handled by the GRO Wills can be ordered via Probate Offices or from Leeds , theoretically the result should be the same , or from the Principal Probate Registry in London (they have an order over the counter 48 hour service) You can order BMD certs from local offices , some of which appear to steer the customer to the GRO , others are very helpful and could not do more for you Whilst the GRO accept credit card payment and ordering online, most local offices do not and are more expensive plus add post and packing charges It is high time the Probate Service had at the least a method to pay by credit card, they are working on having an online ordering system but its been a loooooooooooong time coming to fruition NB a post to this or any list would have cleared up your questions on costs of wills etc in short order :-) Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 04/09/2012 02:21, Patsy Crotty wrote: > Hi Chris and all, > > I have found a similar thing with the Leeds District Probate Registry. I > only wish I had had Lin's knowledge prior to ordering through them. It was > simply because those were the names at the bottom of the information, so I > assumed that it was where I had to apply for those particular wills. Never > thought to look at GRO to see. Those are the traps for young players, I > guess. How does one find out these things apart from learning from > experience? Is there some sort of "Strategies for newcomers" site with this > information stockpiled?! >