Power of Attorney Bank Account

mike-lee

Hi. Has anyone had any success setting up a Power of Attorney bank account? I have to set an account on behalf of my mother and for the last three months have had an extremely frustrating experience with Alliance & Leicester. They have no knowledge of POA's at branch level and three times the forms have been returned by their head office. Also the customer service has been dreadful.

If anyone has had a successful experience, I would be very grateful to know.

Cheers
Mike

Be_Happy

I set up one last month for my sister with Royal Bank of Scotland. Got appointment in branch, showed POA, identification, etc, account set up there and then and received card and PIN within 7 days. Don't know if it made a difference that I'm existing customer with them.

Don't go near HBOS. I've had incredible trouble with sister's existing accounts and converting them to POA. Would never use again.

Biggles

Most banks are OK with this, I set up many for my mother (with about 10 different banks/building societies) but you may need to move up the management chain to find someone who understands them, the general level of understanding is very poor.

Many have a specific department that handles PoA accounts, it's best to start off saying you want a PoA account and see if they can find someone that understands it.

DawnW

I think from my experience is that it is best to try where the bank account was originally held, even if it is not your own bank. When I had to deal with my Mum's affairs (court of protection, as too far gone with dementia to be albe to grant POA), I went to the local branch of Barclays where she had always banked - even though I had actually ditched Barclays for myself long before. In all fairness to them, they were great, and offered a prompt and professional service.