The situation with my aunt is at the stage where she seems capable of getting out to the shops by herself, but is finding it difficult to deal with credit card transactions when paying for the goods.
She lost her debit card a few weeks ago and I think she may now have lost the Visa card she has been using since. That leaves her with no cards and I'm a bit reluctant to get any more for her as she just keeps losing them.
We give her cash to pay for things but she loses this as well. Now that's not too much of a problem as we know roughly how much she spends each week so we make sure she hasn't got too much at any one time to lose!
However, I've discovered last week she went into the local branch of her bank and withdrew £100 cash. When I spoke with the call centre, explained the situation and asked what limits they put on cash withdrawals, they tell me she could withdraw up to £2000 on each visit if she wants to.
My concern now is that she is going to get into a cycle of withdrawing money, losing it, withdrawing more and so on. I can monitor the situation as I have POA registered with the bank and I keep an eye on what goes in and out of the account, but the bank tell me it is her money and they can't put any lower limits in place.
I could transfer most of her money to her savings account and leave a smaller balance in the current one, but then I'd be concerned that she might become distressed if the bank tell her the current account doesn't have much in it.
I could also have a word with the branch manager and see if they will impose a discretionary lower limit on daily/weekly withdrawals locally.
Has anyone had this situation and how did you cope with it?
She lost her debit card a few weeks ago and I think she may now have lost the Visa card she has been using since. That leaves her with no cards and I'm a bit reluctant to get any more for her as she just keeps losing them.
We give her cash to pay for things but she loses this as well. Now that's not too much of a problem as we know roughly how much she spends each week so we make sure she hasn't got too much at any one time to lose!
However, I've discovered last week she went into the local branch of her bank and withdrew £100 cash. When I spoke with the call centre, explained the situation and asked what limits they put on cash withdrawals, they tell me she could withdraw up to £2000 on each visit if she wants to.
My concern now is that she is going to get into a cycle of withdrawing money, losing it, withdrawing more and so on. I can monitor the situation as I have POA registered with the bank and I keep an eye on what goes in and out of the account, but the bank tell me it is her money and they can't put any lower limits in place.
I could transfer most of her money to her savings account and leave a smaller balance in the current one, but then I'd be concerned that she might become distressed if the bank tell her the current account doesn't have much in it.
I could also have a word with the branch manager and see if they will impose a discretionary lower limit on daily/weekly withdrawals locally.
Has anyone had this situation and how did you cope with it?
Last edited: