Best OAP Account

amazine

My 83 year old aunt is worried about money and would like me to look after her finances. She only has a Post Office Card Account and I suggested a Lloyds TSB Classic account for its withdrawal and online facilities.
What is the best account for an 83 year old pensioner.

Mikeyorks

Her age is irrelevant to the type of account .... it's your degree of involvement + the sums involved + any interest requirements that dictate where is best?

Do you need a High St presence to pay cash in / will you manage it online? Is it practical to get the pension paid directly into whichever Bank you choose (and cancel the PO Account) .... or does she work around drawing cash locally and need that to continue? Etc Etc

amazine

She has around £6600 and would like me to take complete control. Earning interest would be a bonus and the ability to withdraw weekly from the PO a must. I would like full internet control. A bank that will transfer the pension and benefits from the old account to the new account would be nice.

onlypaddy

I think in order to take 'complete control' you would probably need to get Power of Attorney

Mikeyorks

By 'old account' are we talking the PO (cash) account that her pension is paid into? As i'm pretty certain that can only be operated with her card?

Or is there an existing account ..... as keeping £6600 in the PO account doesn't quite add up?

Whichever. The current best place for the £6600 is with Lloyds TSB (Classic account + Vantage) .... they will pay 4% if you keep between £5k and £7k in it. But don't go over the £7k as the interest on the surplus drops dramatically. The sole practical downside is you have to pay £1k monthly into the account. Easy enough to do by transferring £1k out of the Vantage and into your account ... then transfer it straight back again. That satisfies the T&Cs.

http://www.lloydstsb.com/current_accounts/classic_and_classic_plus_accounts.asp

Obviously works best if your account supports Faster Payments (the Vantage account does ... both in and out). Set it up in her name / address .... but you maintain the Login details to manage it.

If there is 'another account' holding the £6600? ..... then you could use that to transfer the £1k into / out of ...... as it's best to avoid setting up transfers to yourself if at all possible.

As you mentioned it ..... I assume there's a Lloyds TSB locally to pay any surplus cash into from the PO account? I don't think you can do that automatically .... if it's this one :-

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/content1?mediaId=19200177&catId=19100189

amazine

That's incredibly useful info, thank you. I will open a Lloyds TSB Classic account + Vantage account and then transfer a thousand out and then back in. My mother also has a Lloyds TSB Classic account. I think what may work is setting up their accounts to transfer £1000 automatically to each others accounts. The tax man may think it odd if I use my account. Do you think that will work.

Mikeyorks

amazine wrote: »

The tax man may think it odd if I use my account.

Not at all .... the main reason for not involving your account is simply that of an audit trail. If you're not the sole beneficiary of her will ..... then regular transfers to your account aren't a good idea as it can raise unnecessary suspicions elsewhere?
I ran my Mother's accounts for a while and insisted that any money she ever owed me was via cheque ... so there was no possibility of misunderstanding with my siblings. I also made sure she still received paper Statements - direct to her address.

What you propose should work OK ...... but, personally I'd spend a couple of minutes a month just logging in and moving the £1k manually. That way there's no possibility of SOs getting in the way of weekends / Bank holidays. Lloyds may treat these as internal transfers (Halifax do) and, as such they will work every day. But if they're d/w as SOs then even though they go as faster payments ..... they have Bank non-working days off! So you have to set up the SOs with that in mind .... which is a pain.

Do it just via a login .... much safer ..... and it means the 1k is only out of the Vantage account for minutes

One word of caution. You can have up to 3 Vantage accounts. But it does ask on the online application (you can do that in Branch for speed - then set up the online access separately. Obviously .... don't mention / let aunt mention that you're going to manage it) if you're an existing customer? Not sure why it does that as I can't see any issues in the T&Cs. But if there are ..... upgrade the Classic to Vantage as well. That way the single £1k transfer does both sets of funding ...... but keep most of the £6.6k in one of them as the interest tiers reap most benefit that way.

And don't forget ..... to file an R85 if her income is less than her Personal Allowance (£9640?)

amazine

I have no siblings and in my aunts case she never married and has no children and no will. She does have 2 sisters and shares an OAP bungalow with one of them, my mother. She has many health issues and is registered blind. I seem to have landed the job as unofficial carer. This info is big help, many thanks.