Managing Parent's Bank Account - Direct Debit 2nd Authorisation

Earthsharples

Hi everyone, 
I'm looking for some advice on managing my mother's bank account. Her memory is on the decline and my late father used to take care of the home accounts, so she tends to get confused around bills and what have you.  She's also more recently been scammed into setting up several Direct Debits over the phone by fraudulent companies pretending to offer Home Appliance cover.  In some cases they claim she already has cover with them and is late for payments, she panics and hands over the details.  I continually tell her that she doesn't have to worry about any bills, I have taken care of her utilities, services, insurance... you name it, it's sorted.  Unfortunately she still feels pressured to hand over bank details.   Over the last 24 months she's probably been scammed for around 2k in total.

I have registered Lasting Power of Attorney, but she still likes to maintain independence in terms of heading out with friends and shopping and so she still has a debit card and credit card.  Unfortunately there are no real spending habits, so setting up a card with a set amount isn't necessarily going to work. I have helped her to pay off her mortgage so that is no longer a worry.  She still picks up my dad's civil service pension and this takes care of her bills, so she's in a good position financially.  Her own pension is essentially expandable income, although I move some aside each month into a savings account to take care of house improvements/repairs/maintenance/etc.

Reluctantly I intend to change her phone number (she's had the same one for 30 years), which may put a stop to most of the phonecalls.  
The problem could easily be solved if the bank allowed some kind of additional Direct Debit validation step, where I could confirm any direct debits setup by my mum.  Unfortunately her bank Nationwide don't offer this service.  

Does anybody know of any banks that provide a service like this?  Or if anyone has an alternative idea to stop my poor mum from getting scammed, I'm all ears.  It does nothing for her confidence.  She doubts her already declining memory.  We have countless phonecalls where she has partly remembered a phonecall with someone sounding official claiming she owes money for appliance cover.  I can say "they're scammers" "don't hand over bank details over the phone" "just hang up" till I'm blue in the face, but she thinks she's being impolite by hanging up on crooks!

I don't know what to do to maintain her independence for however long that will last, whilst protecting her interests.  

Thanks for your help

Adam

Robin9

1) No need to change phone number  - buy a BT8600. and just permit numbers from family and friends
2) Change banks and leave her the old card

robatwork

First thing to get sharpish is BT call protect (free) and something like this:

https://www.truecall.co.uk/shop/truecall-call-blocker

JGB1955

You could provide her with a pre-paid cash card and top it up as and when required. 
Prepaid cards: best offers for 2020 - MoneySavingExpert

Alternately, you could open a NatWest account - their credit and debit cards aren't embossed so you would be able to Tippex out the card number, leaving her able to spend on the cards without being able to pass the details on to a third party.

jsmith9

Maybe a bit out in Left Field but could you remove the bank account details or at least two or three numbers from the debit card so that the debit card still works but she cannot see the bank details in order to give them to the scammers so that that she would not be able to setup any more direct debits

you would also of course have to make sure she didn't have a cheque book etc around

some debit cards allow you to easily scratch off the bank details

Zanderman

A pre-paid debit card should work fine.  And won't be a bank account so she won't be able to set up DD's etc. 
You say she has no fixed spending habits so it's difficult to know what to top up but that's surely not really a problem. 
You just put a decent whack on it (say £500) and see how it goes. Should be ample for shopping trips with friends
Some cards allow you to monitor spend and top-up via an app so you'd be able to top up irregular amounts as you need to.  And double check she's not doing anything silly.  If she is then cut down the total to a less risky level.
Lots of info on prepaid cards available - https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/prepaid-cards/
And don't forget the so called currency cards e.g FairFX which you can also use as a simple sterling prepaid card (and some allow you to have a main card that you hold and a subsidiary card for mum, son, da, daughter or whatever)

Earthsharples

This is all top advice. Thankyou everyone.  
Truecall looks ideal.  She can let trusted callers through, block all the miscreants and anyone else can come through me.  I was worried about getting her a new phone, any kind of change really knocks her confidence and she tends to keep little mistakes to herself out of embarrassment.  To be honest, if this does what it says, we'll eliminate those pesky Direct Debit scammers in no time.  And I will certainly look into a cash only card.  She really doesn't need to be setting up Direct Debits.

Thankyou everyone, you've made my life easier and definitely improved things for my mum.  

Have yourselves a happy new year!

jackjones01

If you’re getting power of attorney could you not set up the mobile banking app on your phone so you can monitor the account. I’m not sure if it’s allowed but it might be option. 

colsten

jackjones01 said:

 I’m not sure if it’s allowed but it might be option. 

AFAIK, under a Lasting POA, you can do online or app banking once the LPOA is recorded with the bank. What you can't normally do is open new accounts.

Armorica

Did she get all her money back - this should fall within the direct debit guarantee. If you tell Nationwide, they should escalate to get the company trying to get money barred from being able to originate direct debits.

While it seems a very technical point, were they set up as proper direct debits, or as card-based continuous payment authorities (which are much harder to block and stop - and would still go through on a pre-paid card). 

I've had a dig around but can't see anyone currently providing validation for new instruction. The most likely to provide would be firms like Monzo or Starling but neither appear to.

xlnc99

Switch banks to Barclays. Once you set it up add your mobile as contact for alerts and what not. Once a Direct Debit is set up, Barclays will alert you by notification. You can cancel  the DD straight away before any money is taken.

Barclays are the only bank i know off that gives you an alert once a DD is set up