Halifax plc
Well, I have to say I have never previously been a fan of the Halifax, but when mum became even slightly incapable of managing her affairs, we went along to a local branch (not the one at which mum had her accounts cos it was only an agency), one Friday, with the EPA (not yet registered) and within half an hour I was recorded on all her accounts as POA for her, moved some money around (the young man was very sympathetic to mum's need to have "a book" for her accounts, which generally means lower interest), changed one account to a much higher interest rate, and a couple of weeks later a new cheque book arrived, plus two debit cards - one for mum (which I immediately destroyed) and one for me. I went onto the Halifax website, registered myself for online banking, moved monies around again and bingo! All done easily. The only thing the website wouldn't let me do was close an account completely and transfer the balance to a better one, I had to leave a bit in it. But that wasn't anything to do with the POA. So I guess I have to go to a branch to withdraw the £1 I left on it. I couldn't transfer the lot cos interest needed to be calculated up to the date of withdrawal, and I couldn't get the website to do that.
Contrast that with getting British Gas to send her gas bill to my address instead of hers. Certified POA required, evidence of mum's signature, all sent off weeks ago, still going to her address (but we've done a mail redirection). Do they want paying or not? And all of them - gas, electric and water rates - were asked to send me direct debit forms 3 months ago, none received. The Water Board even confirmed with me over the phone what the monthly payments would be, and said they had set it up. I notice no money taken out of the current account, and today a bill appeared for the second half year instalment.
Pathetic.
I also found a few old documents implying that mum might have some life insurance policies still valid. Worth about £200 between them, by the looks of it. Boy, try getting THEM to communicate with me. The Britannic won't even change the address to mine without the ORIGINAL REGISTERED POA. Contrast that with Swizzels Matlow Ltd, Confectioners, News Mills, Derbyshire, with whom mum had had a pension which I believe was never paid to her. They were delightful. Going back to records from 20 years ago, not a problem. Not quite sorted, but it seems mum tool a lump sum option rather than an annual pension, but they have passed it to head office to resolve.
Fortunately, I have a friendly solicitor who will sign all this stuff without charging me, to most people it would probably be £7 a time.
Attendance Allowance is another matter, I'm going to post another thread.
Hope you all sort out these difficulties with POA. You think you are doing the right thing by having a POA but sometimes it isn't any better than just going along and explaining the situation to a reasonable person.
Love to all
Margaret