Account Member Deceased

https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1113355/

Unless this person is the account owner this is unnecessary. The account owner is the only incident where AT&t is going to have to close an account and transfer billing responsibility to the other users on the account. And the account owner is the only one who is financially responsible for all of the phones and phone lines. AT&t does not forgive phone payments for member lines. Because the member was not responsible financially and the phone and the line is not in his name

You do have to call to cancel the phone line. Canceling the phone line will accelerate any installments that are left.  The remainder of the installments will be on the next bill.

And because this question has been asked before, no they do not move the installments to a different phone line. Once you pay off the phone it is yours to do with as you wish. You can either sell it to recoup the cost, or pass it down to someone else on your plan who needs another phone.

Just to emphasize again, you cannot write a letter to cancel a phone line. You must call.  Is there a reason why you cannot call?   

To summarize what the other two posts have said.

1. Is the deceased an account owner with only that phone on their line? 

--If so, there's no reason for you to pay it; it's not your responsibility. After payments stop, it won't be longer before AT&T cancels the account in its own. The estate will owe for those couple months of service, but that's better than paying every month. 

2. Is the deceased's phone number a line on your account?

--If so, then it's not their phone, it's yours. You need to call to make the change to your account to remove that line. 

3. Is the line in a question on the deceased's account which is set up on autopay (and you just used strange wording by saying you'd been paying)?

--This is the only situation that can be even a bit complicated. You can cancel the autopay card, which will bring us back up to the result of option 1. If that's not feasible (e.g., there are other bills the estate will have to use the card to pay), then you'll need the death certificate and a visit to a corporate-owned AT&T store. 

Thank you for all the information, I did say I didn't want to talk to someone, its been 7 years paying for a phone that my son had on my account, he committed suicide in 2016 and we kept the phone and account hoping for answers, and dealing with the grief.  Grief can make you do some odd things....so I wanted to see if I could get compensation for the 7 years of payments on MY account in some way by sending in his death certificate and explaining just like I have now. Thank you for your time.

Oh, as the mother of sons I'm terribly sorry. I cannot imagine what a horrific loss this was.

In the simplest of terms, there is no compensation. It your choice to keep the line and continue paying for it.  Since it's your account, there is no requirement that you send in the death certificate.  

To cancel, you must call and ask them to cancel the line. There is no explanation needed.

I can certainly understand why you do not want to call and speak to someone and explain what you just explained to us. Please understand you don't owe AT&T any explanation for why you are canceling that phone line you just call and cancel the line. If they try to talk you into something else just say no we don't need the phone line anymore.

 I hope that perhaps you are a person of faith and that it gives you comfort. Sometimes there is no explanation.  And sometimes the explanation is no comfort. 

You can also have someone call on your behalf. The rep doesn't know what NRGuest sounds like, they just care that the caller can provide the passcode. If you have a trusted friend or relative who can use your passcode and call *as you,* it might save you from the pain of having to talk to someone yourself. 

@MicCheck  good idea. ❤️