How can a housebound person get to their money

goldilocks101

My elderly mother is housebound and cannot access the internet or deal with phone banking. Currently she hands her bank card to her brother to make withdrawals and do her shopping. Concerns have been raised about the consequences should the card get lost. My sisters and I are not local enough to help and want to know the best way for her to get to her money

74jax

We used to have a set up with mam whereby her social workers/carers would do her shopping and email me the receipts and I then transferred over this money to a 'pot' that their office kept.  I think they always had around £100 of her money.  I also did mam's Farm Food order for her over the phone with her each fortnight and paid for that online - they come in and put the shopping away for her too so she didn't have to answer the door etc.
I'm guessing your brother had POA, do you all have it?  You could work it between you who does what - ie one does the online stuff and another just tops up bit and and pieces etc.  

lika_86

goldilocks101 said:

My elderly mother is housebound and cannot access the internet or deal with phone banking. Currently she hands her bank card to her brother to make withdrawals and do her shopping. Concerns have been raised about the consequences should the card get lost. My sisters and I are not local enough to help and want to know the best way for her to get to her money

How is her card getting lost any different to the situation where anybody loses their card? Presumably the brother would need to get onto the issuer and get it frozen/cancelled.

tacpot12

Opening a second current account (with a different bank) would be some sort of safeguard against losing the card and not being able to get cash.  

DullGreyGuy

goldilocks101 said:

My elderly mother is housebound and cannot access the internet or deal with phone banking. Currently she hands her bank card to her brother to make withdrawals and do her shopping. Concerns have been raised about the consequences should the card get lost. My sisters and I are not local enough to help and want to know the best way for her to get to her money

How do you think it worked before Internet and telephone banking?

Ideally someone should have a lasting power of attorney to be able to deal with matters for her officially. They could then use internet or telephone banking to transfer monies to her brother so they can continue doing the shopping whilst the replacement card arrives. 

If someone can afford to lend their mother for 1 weeks shopping then thats a shorter solution by again transferring it to her brother and he then deposits it back once the new card arrives. 

Sounds like longer term planning is also required as you say its HER brother and so he presumably is also getting on in years and won't be able to run errands indefinitely 

amanda1024

If she’s not going out, does she actually need cash? Could she eg buy vouchers online to give to her brother for him to buy the shopping - or transfer the money over to him in advance?

amanda1024

If she’s not going out, does she actually need cash? Could she eg buy vouchers online to give to her brother for him to buy the shopping - or transfer the money over to him in advance?

amanda1024

If she’s not going out, does she actually need cash? Could she eg buy vouchers online to give to her brother for him to buy the shopping - or transfer the money over to him in advance?

elsien

amanda1024 said:

If she’s not going out, does she actually need cash? Could she eg buy vouchers online to give to her brother for him to buy the shopping - or transfer the money over to him in advance?

How is she going to buy vouchers online or transfer money if she doesn’t use the internet? 

Power of attorney would seem to be the way to go. I would suggest a third-party bank mandate while she still has capacity however I think this may need her to go to the bank to set it up. Might be worth investigating further though.

Concerns have been raised by who, exactly? 

maman

My elderly neighbour was in a similar situation. 

Her son did a regular online shop for her which was delivered. They spoke over the phone about what she needed before the order was placed as the son lived some distance away. 

However, if your uncle is happy to do the shopping then I agree with the previous comment that anyone can lose a card. If that should happen then you could step in and do an online shop while it's replaced. 

Savvy_Sue

To me, there's a slight concern that someone other than mum knows her PIN and has her card. (I'm assuming uncle knows PIN in case it's ever asked for.)

If it's lost and misused, the bank might argue that she'd been negligent.

Third party mandate or a joint account would cover those concerns but LPA is the best option.