Am I breaking the law by helping elderly grandfather with paying bills online

[Thoughtthatcounts]

My grandfather is in his late 90’s and Is still fairly on the ball. I see him every few days and he has always asked me to get money out of the cash machine so he can pay various care that he receives around the house. Last year I also set him up with internet banking so I could pay bills for him. I set it up so it has my email etc and I can log on. All entries are carefully matched up with invoices so it’s completely transparent. Another family member has said I am breaking the law, so I am now worried. No-one else sees him very often so he relies on me doing his shopping etc and I am very close to him. I never take any money from him except for paying for shopping and I hate to think someone thinks I am helping myself to his finances. Advice needed please

Sounds like an extremely good set-up to me! Did your family member clarify how they think you're breaking the law? Do you have power of attorney, or your grandfather's express written permission to handle his finances? Either one might be a good idea to prevent future issues. Would Citizens Advice Bureau be able to help with advice on this arrangement? Also, does he have a valid and up to date will, in case of any financial wrangling/concerns in the future? Sounds like he's very lucky to have you helping him so pro-actively

do not worry @Thoughtthatcounts 🌻 I think this arrangement is fairly common.

If you are, at all, concerned there are official options

www.barclays.co.uk/third-party-access/

I did exactly what you are doing for my mum.
It's not illegal. And if everything matches up it's fine.
How does the relative who told you this, let you know
what to do.

Provided you have his permission and aren't taking any money you shouldn't, this is perfectly legal.

You might want to get your grandfather to think about giving you lasting power of attorney for property and financial affairs.

You are not breaking the law but you are breaking the T&C of the account.

The issue is, if your grandad is then scammed, or a victim of some sort of fraud, and when asked he says "well my granddaughter does all my internet banking for me, I haven't even got a computer" then they would be within rights to say that he hasn't looked after his account and therefore they can't refund it as if he's shared it with you, they don't know you, you could have shared details etc.

Unlikely, I've worked in banking fraud, but it is possible.

If you can, get a third party access set up instead as the first poster mentions. Covers you both then.

Whilst it may not be illegal I would be wary if a family member is questioning it. If I were you I would get a power of attorney sorted out asap to protect yourself.

I agree with this.

If family member is suspicious they will be letting others know and it can cause major issues.

Getting an LPA set up would be much better, because then you can legally deal with all financial institutions, utilities etc on his behalf if necessary as he gets frailer or needs to go into care or whatever.

If he doesn't want to do that, you could just regularise the current situation by being added as an additional signatory to his main bank account. I did that before my parents got to the stage of needing to activate their LPAs and it meant I got an additional bank card in my name and could access the account legitimately.

I do this for my DM85 and have done for about 5 years. I've only recently had to enforce a POA on her bank account due to her being targeted by scammers. Luckily I managed to stop them before anything was taken out of her bank but the bank suggested that I enforce the POA as DM was vulnerable now as clearly being targeted.

They did say that I wouldn't (or shouldn't) have access to her banking app but I do and it's what I use constantly.

My dm set me up as a signatory on her current account. I could set up direct debits etc. Also received a debit card so I could pay bills or get cash from atm. All totally legit. I also had her on my ebanking. We banked with the same bank.
The account was still in her sole name and when she passed I was no longer a signatory to the account.