LPA for finance- are there any banks that aren't useless?

[Isitsticky]

DSis and I have financial LPA for mum. Her account is with barclays. We had to spend 1 1/2 hours in branch registering the LPA's. We were told that it was all sorted, but we can't use the app to manage her money (why??).

Basic stuff was ok but when we wanted to put some of her money in a bond, the website wouldn't let me do it. After hours on the phone, we had to go into branch again (another hour). They said the reason it hadn't worked was that they hadn't listed her town of birth.

i wanted to put some of her money in an ISA and, surprise, I can't do that online. Mum wanted to send some money to a DGC who is buying a house, and that won't go through either. They are looking at things and will probably call me, but nothing. I'm done with them.

Does anyone have any better experiences?

So it sounds as if shit, wank and crap is the verdict for most of them, even if some lucky people have a good experience. It seems, as ThatCyanSheep says, the system isn't fit for purpose. They seem to spectacularly miss the whole point of LPAs.

I also have an account with Barclays, have done for decades, but still had to go in to register my LPA.

TSB have been fine for us so far.

Coventry and Skipton building societies have been good, with helpful people on the phone (I always go through to the power of attorney department where they are specially trained, rather than the normal service). Lloyds and Bank of Scotland actually good, and patient with me when I keep losing and muddling up the passwords.
NS and I spectacularly bad. Post Office and Virgin Money were beyond belief appalling.
i don’t think any of them allow you to use the app as power of attorney .

£300! How?!

I got a stack of copies certified for £15 (admittedly 6 or 7 years ago, so I'd expect to pay a bit more now).

And I found Nationwide very good. Didn't try using the app at all though - did everything in branch.

It absolutely shouldn’t be £300!!!

And unfortunately @Isitsticky, yes the system is just broken. They introduced digital codes to try and make it better but the vast majority of banks don’t recognise them

The whole LPA system needs a complete overhaul and has been oversold to the public. Many staff members in both banks and building societies still have no idea how to deal with such legal documents and there have been problems with these going back years. (I was never trained in these and was just advised to forward all questions to our Head Office).

It’s genuinely scary how many people don’t even know what they are.

I had to submit one to a parking charge company. They refused, even when presented with the valid LPA and mental capacity report, to speak to us.

“The owner of the car needs to speak to us”

”they can’t because they have X disease that means they lack capacity. The car is in their name because it’s a motability vehicle but the driver is insured. We are attorneys”

”the owner must sign a letter of authority”

“they can’t. They lack capacity”

”this is going to court”

the dispute resolution team had fun with that one.

My mum was an authorised person on her parents bank account which worked well
for day to day transactions. Do you have this?

My wife had vascular dimentia 5 years ago starting in 2020 , l hubby set up power of attorney with Lloyds bank which was easy, um if you spending mums money please keep records, as there is monitoring body , l had no trouble with savings for ann over 4 years , l could only gift up to 3000 pounds in one year to children etc it's in the rules , um an isa should be OK, all this is in case mum needs to go into care and it's ok they call it deprivation of assets, so maybe if mum has a house it can be used by selling to pay for her care untill the amount she has £ 15580 then she does not pay for care below that amount sorry William, l hope this helps a bit it's a bit complicated, Also if mum has someone over retirement age or some one who is disabled in the house flat bungalow local council or social services can make you sell the house . I know this as my wife passed away in March also l am a semi retired tax and dwp inspector hope this helps William

Natwest was ok for me - I had online access , didn't bank with them myself.

Santander have been super. All done online, helpful people on the phone, online access and debit card sent to me within days.

registered my LPA for my mum at her Lloyds branch, and it was activated immediately, asked me if i needed/wanted a card for the account and what about online banking.

Pretty impressive, tbh

Bonds and sending money to dgc um can be seem again as deprivation of assets itissticky l am sorry , has mum lost capacity, no insult meant at all , the rules are to protect mum and money she may have in case of the need of a care home , don't forget if mum is retired she can claim attendance allowance which can be up to 109 pounds a week ,if in a care home when mums money or savings get below 15000 odd pounds local authority pay for mums care it's complicated sorry William

Nationwide have been fine for me, though I can only view DFs account via desktop and had to open an account of my own (very basic saver and stuck £10 in it) first. The actual registration process was simple and all sorted in about 10 days.

I have a video appointment with TSB next week to sort out access to his accounts there as there are no branches near me to visit.

Another vote for Halifax here. Barclays were hard work but we got there.

Welcome to my world …. 3 visits to Barclays in person and it was still not set up properly.

Some compensation… after a formal complaint.

Can’t use the app but I can use online banking now … which makes it easier. I was able to open a bond the other day online and it was very simple ….

so there is hope !

I had the opposite problem with NatWest dsis regularly transferring money from dm to her own account via the banking app she had downloaded to her phone before poa was even registered and to my knowledge nothing was ever flagged as suspicious. I even contacted them alert them as dm wasn’t aware of these transactions dsis had turned off paper statements and housebound and only found out when I took her to the bank and they did nothing. Poa has now been registered with NatWest only after dsis had dm remove me as poa as they have an app i believe that alerts all poa when transactions are made

My mum was with Nationwide and they couldn’t have been more helpful or easy to deal with.

It is an old style one and every page needs certifying and it is long. it doesn’t have code access
£300 is at the lower end

I just offer to take my mum in to the nearest branch etc
pointing out that she is doubly incontinent and likely to remove all her clothes at any point

Not surprisingly they back down quite quickly

To get a certified copy!m? It really shouldn’t be

🤣🤣🤣🤣 brilliant. The entire system needs reform but I just don’t know how that happens