Virgin Money and LPA's

mhudgell

My wife and I have been appointed LPA's for someone and are therefore obliged to ensure their investments are protected and maximised. We used to do this informally before being appointed LPA's.

There is a reasonable amount held in a Virgin Money Cash ISA which has been managed online previously. Today when I went online to move the money to a new Virgin Money Cash ISA access to the account was blocked.

Following a painful 20 mins on the phone answering all of the security questions and a catch 22 of "how much is in the ISA" - "not sure I cannot log on to check", "how much is in the ISA" - "not sure I cannot log on to check", "how much is in the ISA" - "not sure I cannot log on to check" etc.... I was eventually told that the online account had been converted into a POSTAL account.

WHY? because you are now an LPA, and thats what we do !!

But you never told us, informed us, wrote to us..... We must have...

What a strange approach to driving customers away ......:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

ChesterDog

I feel for you.

I ran my parents' very complex finances for a few years before my mother's death two years ago, and still run my father's.

LPAs can be very troublesome in their administration.

Thankfully, before taking them out, I had my parents take a scythe to their dozens of accounts and myriad individual investments.

Banks vary widely in the way they operate with LPAs.

All you can do is grit your teeth and jump through the hoops.

greenglide

My mother had a savings account with Virgin and when I got POA Virgin converted a branch account into a postal account and they informed me that would happen when I informed them.

No big hassle in our circumstances,

Malthusian

Could be worse, it could be Court of Protection. At least they were good enough to take out LPAs.

Online accounts and LPAs just don't mix. I don't know any bank that has designed its online banking system with possible use by attorneys in mind. All of them are designed to be used by one person who never divulges their login details. As soon as the bank finds out someone else has a customer's login details they are going to go into lockdown. Even if that person has PoA.

Attorneys should stick to postal / branch accounts with a bank whose staff are familiar with and understand LPAs. Some are better than others.

Linton

Malthusian wrote: »

Could be worse, it could be Court of Protection. At least they were good enough to take out LPAs.

Online accounts and LPAs just don't mix. I don't know any bank that has designed its online banking system with possible use by attorneys in mind. All of them are designed to be used by one person who never divulges their login details. As soon as the bank finds out someone else has a customer's login details they are going to go into lockdown. Even if that person has PoA.

Attorneys should stick to postal / branch accounts with a bank whose staff are familiar with and understand LPAs. Some are better than others.

Nat West handle PoA properly online. I have PoA for my father who like me banks with NatWest. My online login can see and manage his accounts alongside mine. Also, I have a debit card in my name linked to one of his accounts. Their staff seem well trained in the area.

badger09

Lloyds also operate PoA accounts correctly online.

My husband operates Club Lloyds current and monthly saver on behalf of his mum.

talexuser

I run my mothers' Lloyds and BoS current accounts online under POA, and ran them before the POA too with the same logins, also have debit cards in my name for both accounts.
I also run her Fundsnetwork ISA with POA, can login to confirm her monthly incomes, just have to phone them if wishing to switch funds.

xylophone

Barclays allow POA to operate on line accounts as do HL and II.

Malthusian

I stand corrected, thanks all. Clearly the banks have significantly improved in this area.

You do still occasionally find people who run into problems when they assume that as they have PoA it's fine to simply log in using their mum's login details which she wrote down for them, and then get in a bind when the bank realises that a "third party" is using the login details and suddenly blocks access.

Vortigern

Add Halifax and Santander to the list of banks that allow online access by attorneys.

Looks like Virgin need to catch up!

Thrugelmir

Vortigern wrote: »

Looks like Virgin need to catch up!

New kids on the block. The other banks mentioned are long standing established players.