Bank won't give my dad his money

lr1277

I was going to say, if your dad chooses to go into branch, remember to make an appointment. Some appointments are coming up a month in the future. Well that is what happened to me. I needed to go into a branch to take certain actions after my dad died.

But then I thought, your dad would still need photo ID. According to the Barclay's website, there is a very short list of photo ID as shown here:

https://www.barclays.co.uk/personal/current-accounts/what-do-i-need-to-open-a-bank-account/ 

Perhaps it is best to wait for the POA documents to arrive.Then find out if you can register the POA document and your ID online, otherwise it will involve a trip to the branch, and as I said above, there may be some time before you get an appointment.

xylophone

I asked Barclays if they will accept utility bills, DWP notifications etc as a form of identity but they said no. If he still doesn't have a current passport or driving licence by then he needs to get a solicitors letter confirming his identity and that he is under no pressure to withdraw his money. 

https://www.barclays.co.uk/help/accounts/opening/what-id/

If you can’t provide at least 2 of these documents, please call us on 0345 7345 345 to discuss the other options available.

Was the solicitor's letter "the other option"?

And if he doesn't have a passport or driving licence, what proof of identity can he offer to the solicitor other than the pension etc letters that have been offered to Barclays?

And if he has bank statements from both Lloyds and Santander showing the same name and address as on his savings account with Barclays, why on earth all this palaver about moving his money to one of those accounts?

Had you though of making a formal complaint to Barclays about what seems to be an over zealous  (almost obstructive) approach?

HeparGirl24

He's just received a reply to the complaint he made. The problem seems to be his signature which is now "completely different" to the one on their records. This isn't true - his signature is a bit more shaky/wobbly/unsteady but it's not completely different.  They need him to attend a branch with photo id so they can register his "new signature" .

We shall see which arrives first - the POA which I can take to my local branch to scan in and then get my own online access, or the appointment at his branch to change his signature.

paul_c123

Yeah you basically need to sort out your PoA. I don't see Barclays being at fault here - they are abiding by the regulations, which are very cautious/conservative on these matters.

elsien

Is the power-of-attorney LPA or EPA? Because if it’s valid and you can use it individually of the other person and I might be querying why they’re not accepting it.
 Although you may not be able to use it if it has been set up so it only kicks in when he loses capacity. So if he has capacity which he say he does, but the power-of-attorney doesn’t allow for it to be used in those circumstances, it’s no use to you at the moment anyway.

What about a third-party bank mandate? 

lr1277

LPA can be used before the donor has lost capacity as long as you have the donor’s consent. Don’t know if that applies for an EPA.
I never used this feature but have heard once POA is granted, the OPG can give you a code that some financial institutions accept in lieu of seeing the POA document. You could explore if Barclays is such an organisation. This may speed up the registration process.

p00hsticks

HeparGirl24 said:

He's just received a reply to the complaint he made. The problem seems to be his signature which is now "completely different" to the one on their records. This isn't true - his signature is a bit more shaky/wobbly/unsteady but it's not completely different.  

You say that, but even without the shaly/wobbly/unsteady problem, peoples signatures do change over time, and the example Barclays have on record is probably from when your father first opened the account, which is obviously a while back as you say his local branch closed ten years ago.

In the past I've been asked by my bank to go into a branch and show my identity and provide a new specimen signature as it'd been flagged up by the system how much my current signature differed from the one that I'd supplied decades earleir when opening the account. 

HeparGirl24

It's an LPA. Both my parents took LPA's out when I was living in France so all their LPA's had my then French address.  We have been staying with various relatives on both sides since we moved back for various reasons and so I didn't change it as the addresses were only temporary. When we finally got a permanent address my mother became very ill and I needed to use the LPAs a lot so there was never a good time to send them away to update my address. 

Their are two separate problems with Barclays.  The LPA issue has been going on a while but it got put on hold while we dealt with my mothers illness and her subsequent death. There was enough money in his other accounts so it wasn't an immediate priority.  It's only now things have settled down my father has been getting anxious about not having access to his money. I did originally register the LPA online with Barclays and used the OPG code but they still needed to have sight of the paper LPA which is when I started to encounter problems with my old French address.

Because I couldn't get access, my father decided to write and ask them to close the account and send a cheque to him which is when he started encountering problems over his signature and proof of identity.

Abbafan1972

@HeparGirl24 I have been following this thread. 

Did the issue ever get sorted? 

FarmGirl78

We were in very similar situation with my late Grandfather. Luckily he had valid ID so I think in the end my Mum went into branch with him and set up something called "Third party authority" where she got her own card on his account with TPA displayed after her name. I'm fairly certain she was able to set up either telephone or online banking, as Grandad was insensed that she'd be able to see how much he had in his account. (This was of course done with his full knowledge and consent, allbeit very reluctantly as this was a huge sticking point for him!)

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

(Although since Mum did this for Grandad they now seem to have another class of 'Authorised user' and CPA is only temporary)