The Lemon Fool

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone has any experience of opening a joint account in which payments above a certain figure require authorisation from at least two of the signatories?

My mother is frequently falling prey to pushy salesmen and fraudsters, and my brother and I are trying to find a way to prevent her paying four-figure sums to strangers without discussing it with family first, whilst not inhibiting her from her regular modest spending in local shops and restaurants.

Her current bank, Halifax, were pleasant but basically unhelpful...

thanks for any ideas,

splosh

Looking at it a different way, could you keep the majority of the money in a separate account that you and your brother operate using POA (assuming you have one in place) and feeding enough for day to day spending into the account that your mother has access to?

We don't have PoA - there is an EPA prepared, but that only comes into play in the case of loss of capacity. And whilst we are starting to have some concerns about memory issues, Mum is clearly capable of living independently still.

splosh

IME it makes life easier to have an active power of attorney in place - even if you don't use it for years. You then have the comfort of knowing that you can act when you need to. If you wait until the person needs it in place then you've missed the boat to get their agreement while they still have "capacity" and it is more of a hassle to get put in place.

Ultimately I think the answer is no, there isn't. I've worked in Banking IT for [cough] many years and I've never heard of such a facility.

However, perhaps you could mitigate against problems proactively in various ways. Put up a sign on the front door saying no cold callers, register her phone with TPS, take action to stop junk mail and prime your mum to understanding she should turn away unexpected calls or visitors.

Not easy I know - I worry about my mum. But we've mostly got away with it.

Oh we do have an Enduring Power of Attorney, it's just that it can only be used once Mum loses capacity. So we're all set in case of emergency, just not for everyday stuff.

Believe me, the kind of people who con old ladies out of money don't pay the blindest bit of attention to signs on the door. I am more worried about her phone number now being on a list being shared by criminals actually. These guys are *much* better at lying than Mum is at spotting liars. I hadn't realised until my father died that it had been his job for the previous 50 years to be rude to strangers for both of them - Mum has had absolutely no practice at saying no.

Looks like there may be some joint accounts that can be set up on an all-to-sign rather than any-to-sign basis, though, so we're looking at those as the place to sequester larger sums, with a standing order to her current account for regular day-to-day spending. She could still be diddled out of the cost of a lunch out, but would need to talk to us before getting diddled out of significant sums.

Thanks for your thoughts,

splosh

GrandOiseau wrote:Ultimately I think the answer is no, there isn't. I've worked in Banking IT for [cough] many years and I've never heard of such a facility.

Well of course such a facility exists for charities, clubs etc but maybe not for an individual although here we seem to be talking about a joint account. I would have thought that it might be possible, but probably too much trouble for the bank. In any case, what is to stop your mother handing over a cheque with only one signature even if two might be required? The deed might then be done and I have known of banks paying out on only one signature because I do not think they check the one signature never mind ensure that if the cheque is over £x there is a second signature. These days why does she need a chequebook anyway?

Dod

She could still give you an ordinary power of attorney though, couldn't she? For until she loses capacity.

Or could she just give you her money? If I had a daughter as sensible as you, I'd be happy to hand it over, rather risk being conned again! She is lucky. My son has no sense at all, I worry about this for myself.

T

Tortoise1000 wrote:She could still give you an ordinary power of attorney though, couldn't she? For until she loses capacity.

Or could she just give you her money? If I had a daughter as sensible as you, I'd be happy to hand it over, rather risk being conned again! She is lucky. My son has no sense at all, I worry about this for myself.

T

Agreed

Clariman wrote:IME it makes life easier to have an active power of attorney in place - even if you don't use it for years.

How else do you remove them to the mad house whilst you live off their wealth?

Yes, I understand that's not why you want one, but I'm not so sure about all the others...