POA with bank questions, it’s very difficult!

[Twoseventeen]

I have recently registered my LPOA with my mums bank. Being new to this, I didn’t realise she would lose all access, but on going through the process I can see why this was the right thing. For example she had multiple home insurance policies and now I’ve been able to cancel duplicates, claim refunds etc for her.

As mum still lives alone, and many miles away from me, I did want her to have access to some funds for everyday spending, eg the odd pint of milk, cash to pay her hairdresser etc, while I dealt with larger things for her, so, on the advice of the POA team at her bank I got her a pre paid debit card. I thought I could just top this up as and when needed with her own account.

This is where the problem has come in! Every time I have attempted to top up the card it has been flagged as fraudulent. I’ve spent hours on the phone over the past week explaining what I am doing, that I am doing it on their advice, and still every time I need to speak to the fraud team.

Yesterday the lady in the fraud team asked me so many questions which bothered me. Did mum have carers? Did she have accounts with other banks that I was dealing with too? Could they not just give her a debit card from the bank? Why was there a debit card transaction for Sainsburys on mums account when she didn’t have access to it? (I ordered her an online shop as I have been doing for months but only started using her own account for it very recently when her bank issued me a debit card in my own name as POA!)

I really don’t understand why they seem to think I’m committing criminal activity and I need to go through the fraud team each time I try to help mum out. I’m considering complaining but I wanted to ask here first if anyone else has experienced this and if it’s just part of the process? Thank you in advance.

 

[Izzy]

Welcome to the forum @Twoseventeen.

I’m sorry to hear about your problem. I’m afraid I’ve no personal experience to help with this. Hopefully someone else will be along soon who might have some suggestions. In the meantime I wondered if this resource would be of any interest

Dementia-friendly finance

Find out how financial services can become more dementia-friendly by reading our information and downloading your free resource.

www.alzheimers.org.uk

 

[Twoseventeen]

Thank you so much for your reply Izzy, I will take a look.

 

[Valencia72]

Sorry to hear you're having such problems with your mum's bank. I registered my POAs with HSBC on behalf of my parents about 5 years ago and never had any issues. I am also a HSBC customer.
Dad has alzheimers and is in a care home while mum is fine and still lives at home but she was never involved in the household finances so I manage care home bills for dad and mum's day to day finances like bills, insurances etc. I don't live near them either and I need constant online access to pay for things on their behalf.
On registering the POAs HSBC never took away either mum or dad's access to their accounts or own cards. I have a POA debit card (it states POA on my card) for their account which I use to draw money out for mum if she can't get to a cash point. She still has her own debit card which she uses infrequently (as prefers to use cash). Dad even though he can't use it still has his card.
I was under the impression most banks would give the POA access to online banking too, I certainly didn't have a problem with HSBC doing this. Many of the banks or building societies they have accounts with where / are more than happy to give me my own access online and have never suggested taking my parents access away.
If I were you I'd have a serious talk with the bank, in branch if you can, and threaten to move the accounts if they don't make it more accessible for both you and your mum.
Are you worried your mum will start to open multiple policies again? If so I guess leaving access for her is a bit tricky if she is forgetting what she has already bought. Could you tell her you would manage everything like that and she would just have a card for shopping, essentials?
Hope you make some progress

 

[Kevinl]

Once you have activated a Lasting Power of Attorney and I emphasis activated, not just filled in the forms for the future, it requires activation, then if you've informed them it shouldn't be a problem.
BUT laws even within the UK vary and none UK phone lines may vary and quote local law to them, nightmare, bit it is what it is. K

 

[SAP]

My mum still had access to her accounts after I registered the LPA with them, not this particular bank through. A short while later I actually requested that she no longer have a debit card as I was 300 miles away and she had carers in and out all day. I did all her shopping on line and she had access to a cash account which I kept topped up for her . I have never had any issues with using her accounts as POA so I’m wondering what is going on here. I think you need to have a conversation with someone who can resolve this situation for you even if it means making a complaint. Live I’d tough enough as it is with out all this carry on.

 

[Jools1402]

When I registered my POA with Lloyds there was an extremely helpful person who asked whether I wanted mum to still have a debit card or not. When told yes they asked if I wanted to limit her withdrawals on that card. I also got a card to use for her accounts and they made a link from my internet banking to hers. Most helpful and working well.
I would try to escalate a complaint to someone higher @Twoseventeen - or write to the newspapers!

 

[Banjomansmate]

Halifax gave me a debit card as Attorney for The Banjoman and he kept his so that he could pay for shopping or evenings out. Any payments to anybody else were done by me by telephone banking.

 

[Twoseventeen]

Thank you so much for all your replies! It is SO helpful to hear from other people who have been through this process and read about your different experiences.

I had another call from the fraud team after I posted this afternoon to tell me the account debit card was now unblocked. I wasn’t aware it had been blocked to start with!

Mum had many problems with her cards being blocked before I activated the POA, now I’m wondering if it was partly due to the bank and not wholly due to her dementia. This is an online bank so there is no branch to go into unfortunately. I don’t have access to online banking for security reasons but the bank have told me that will change in time. Mum also doesn’t have access to online banking.

I will try to top up mums pre paid card again in a few days and see if the same thing happens. They have declined it so many times but did let the first top up go through last night, after a long time on the phone! Before that I was just topping it up with my own personal account with a different bank which has never had a problem with it. So frustrating. I will see how it goes and if it continues then may put in a complaint. As you have said this process and the whole thing is difficult enough as it is.

 

[SandyI]

I have POA for my mum with HSBC, but originally had a few problems setting it up, and eventually resolved it by putting in a formal complaint. If you continue to have problems I would recommend doing this. After many hours on the phone in my role as LPA with various financial institutions, utility providers and other companies who all have a different understanding of what an LPA is and varying processes (followed by me having numerous meltdowns and tears), my strategy now is if I am unable to achieve what I need to do in the first instance, I politely ask to raise a formal complaint. I have found it saves me valuable time, and normally gets the result I am looking for. Good luck and I hope you don't have any further problems with the bank.

 

[Twoseventeen]

I have POA for my mum with HSBC, but originally had a few problems setting it up, and eventually resolved it by putting in a formal complaint. If you continue to have problems I would recommend doing this. After many hours on the phone in my role as LPA with various financial institutions, utility providers and other companies who all have a different understanding of what an LPA is and varying processes (followed by me having numerous meltdowns and tears), my strategy now is if I am unable to achieve what I need to do in the first instance, I politely ask to raise a formal complaint. I have found it saves me valuable time, and normally gets the result I am looking for. Good luck and I hope you don't have any further problems with the bank.

Thank you so much. I’m so sorry to hear you had problems too. I understand the meltdowns and tears, I’ve also had a few of those. Once I understood the system with the POA activation code I thought it would be straightforward, but as you say it’s like every company has a different procedure.

Your advice is great thank you. Hopefully things will improve but if not then I will complain. Helpful too for dealing with any other organisations!

 

[maisiecat]

I have POA on our joint account with First Direct which is a susidiary of HSBC. My husband is in a Nursing home so doesn't need a card but the POA dept suggested if he did he had a preloaded card so he couldn't overspend.
The bank have been extremely helpful and the only difference I have been aware of is if Direct debits are set up I am written to to check I am not under duress.
I do agree with that registering POA with utilities etc needs to be standardised as each firm demand something different. I have also found that very few will accept a PDF of a POA so you need several copies as again depts are slow returning them.

 

[Twoseventeen]

I have POA on our joint account with First Direct which is a susidiary of HSBC. My husband is in a Nursing home so doesn't need a card but the POA dept suggested if he did he had a preloaded card so he couldn't overspend.
The bank have been extremely helpful and the only difference I have been aware of is if Direct debits are set up I am written to to check I am not under duress.
I do agree with that registering POA with utilities etc needs to be standardised as each firm demand something different. I have also found that very few will accept a PDF of a POA so you need several copies as again depts are slow returning them.

Thank you! It is first direct that I am also dealing with. The POA team themselves were really lovely and helpful, it’s what has come afterwards that has been so difficult. They too recommended a pre loaded card for mum which I did following their advice, they just block my access to the account card now when I try to top it up!

 

[maisiecat]

Thank you! It is first direct that I am also dealing with. The POA team themselves were really lovely and helpful, it’s what has come afterwards that has been so difficult. They too recommended a pre loaded card for mum which I did following their advice, they just block my access to the account card now when I try to top it up!

I think the problems come when you are dealing with the staff not associated with the POA dept. You could try to speaking to them and see if you can resolve it. I know when my family travel aboard they use a pre load card I think called revolut and my 14 year old grandson has a Go henry card so it shouldn't be rocket science.
Good luck I know how frustrating and time consuming it can be. The TV license people were the most efficient for me and the worse DWP. Despite having the POA lodged and documents confirming on the main site the DLA site and Winter fuel allowance use a different programme and can't access the main site. I just gave up especially DLA as they send letters informing of an increase in a payment my husband has received for a year.

 

[Collywobbles]

Thank you! It is first direct that I am also dealing with. The POA team themselves were really lovely and helpful, it’s what has come afterwards that has been so difficult. They too recommended a pre loaded card for mum which I did following their advice, they just block my access to the account card now when I try to top it up!

I would go back to the POA team and ask them to sort it out. Sounds like a flag or check box hasn’t been added to the account records, which would automatically identify it as being controlled by a POA.

 

[steph122]

I have recently registered my LPOA with my mums bank. Being new to this, I didn’t realise she would lose all access, but on going through the process I can see why this was the right thing. For example she had multiple home insurance policies and now I’ve been able to cancel duplicates, claim refunds etc for her.

As mum still lives alone, and many miles away from me, I did want her to have access to some funds for everyday spending, eg the odd pint of milk, cash to pay her hairdresser etc, while I dealt with larger things for her, so, on the advice of the POA team at her bank I got her a pre paid debit card. I thought I could just top this up as and when needed with her own account.

This is where the problem has come in! Every time I have attempted to top up the card it has been flagged as fraudulent. I’ve spent hours on the phone over the past week explaining what I am doing, that I am doing it on their advice, and still every time I need to speak to the fraud team.

Yesterday the lady in the fraud team asked me so many questions which bothered me. Did mum have carers? Did she have accounts with other banks that I was dealing with too? Could they not just give her a debit card from the bank? Why was there a debit card transaction for Sainsburys on mums account when she didn’t have access to it? (I ordered her an online shop as I have been doing for months but only started using her own account for it very recently when her bank issued me a debit card in my own name as POA!)

I really don’t understand why they seem to think I’m committing criminal activity and I need to go through the fraud team each time I try to help mum out. I’m considering complaining but I wanted to ask here first if anyone else has experienced this and if it’s just part of the process? Thank you in advance.

I really feel for you, I have similar experience with my building society, I applied for POA for my wife, but the building society want a copy of the complete POA including name of witnesses and wont except proof provided by office of public guardians. The building society even contacted the police who paid us a visit. Needless to say we don't bank with Nationwide anymore

 

[SMBeach]

I emailed dad’s bank and sent a digital copy of my power of attorney. They (Virgin Money), just have me a debit card of my own. Occasionally a company won’t recognise my card with dad’s account but usually there’s no issues. I have full access to his banking app in my phone.

 

[Twoseventeen]

I really feel for you, I have similar experience with my building society, I applied for POA for my wife, but the building society want a copy of the complete POA including name of witnesses and wont except proof provided by office of public guardians. The building society even contacted the police who paid us a visit. Needless to say we don't bank with Nationwide anymore

Oh my goodness, you received a visit from the police?! That’s terrible! That must have been so awful for you, I’m so sorry you went through that.

I’m pleased to say that the bank approved my last payment to the top up card BUT they still won’t give me access to online banking. I need to make a bank transfer for window cleaning and they won’t let me! I tried calling again yesterday and they couldn’t help. So a formal complaint has been sent today. I now have huge anxiety over calling any financial institutions about my POA which I’ll need to get over as I’m sure this is just the beginning.

 

[Banjomansmate]

Considering LPAs have been in use for years it is amazing that banks, Govt. Departments and businesses still don’t seem to know how to deal with them!

 

[Twoseventeen]

Considering LPAs have been in use for years it is amazing that banks, Govt. Departments and businesses still don’t seem to know how to deal with them!

Absolutely!

I read that Santander (not the bank I’m dealing with) has been working with the Alzheimer’s society, but from what I’ve read that’s to give their customers independence for longer (which is also good) rather than to help those who need a POA to deal with things? I could be wrong there. Anyone had any dealing as a POA with Santander?