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My wife has the financial power of attorney for her Aunt and needs to get control of the bills as things are not getting paid and somethings are crazy high bills.
Has anybody got any suggestions of the best way to go about this, is it a case of ring each company in tern and discuss it, sounds like it will take a long time to get any where but probably the best solution.
Any other advice or pointers to resources greatly received, just to add an extra level of complication we live at the other end of the country from the Aunt, who is still living at home with carers for the moment.
Thanks
Ben.
"Moved over"? If they're being paid from her Aunt's account then your wife should have access to that and pay the bills from there.
What Scotroutes says. Thats the whole point of a financial POA
Yes as above. I have poa for my father, everything is paid from his bank account but I have control of the account too so can oversee as necessary
Setting up poa with the high street banks was the least painful of all arrangements ime. They will have a process in place, it took a couple of weeks. I was many miles from my father so used my local branch of his bank as contact point.
If you want to register poa with any of the companies in question there will be a process that involves them seeing your poa and certified copies of id. (Solicitor will do this). In my experience it's a drawn out affair as many companies have no idea what poa is. Play everything with a straight bat and keep cool. You will need to register the POA to be able to talk them on the phone, again go through the process and keep cool.
With my mum the bank made her account joint with me. So everything just got paid as normal as far as the bills were concerned.
+1 what they said. Though the attorney may sometimes find it easier to settle up the bills themselves and then transfer the money out of the donor's account to repay.
The captain that is also true but ensure you keep records of what is spent and transferred in case of audit. I try and avoid such payments wherever possible for clarity
Incidentally, there seems to be some new process coming in to do with on-line certificates or something which sounds like it should be less painful than using certified hard copies to prove the power exists. We are just working it out...have just got notified that our own PoAs are ready for action - not that we anticipate using them any time soon, but there doesn't seem to be any benefit in waiting until it's too late.
The online certificates are quick and easy - you just log on to the gov.uk website for PoAs, and create a specific code for an external organisation to see, that comes with its own link. Send the link to the firm and it provides the details of the LPA.
I have had no issues with a range of firms (banks, credit cards, insurance, pensions, mortgage providers etc) - all have used the code no problem. All has been done online/via telephone. No need to go into any branches (NatWest and Halifax banks).
OP - just stick with the current bank account (unless there is a real reason to change), and amend the individual services as needed. EG I cancelled some of my dad's subscriptions that he was no longer using, and downgraded his SKy services to match what he now watches. You will need to get full access to the bank account (using the approach above) and then to each individual service (unless you have passwords etc already in which case you may be able to do some of this via their websites).
My advice would also to get access to emails asap - found an old paypal account for my dad that way, which was still linked to his bank and paying an annual sub of £80 for anti-virus software. He no longer even has a computer!
Despite how simple I make this sound, the whole process is time consuming and emotionally exhausting, so try and sort out a few bills at a time and then come back for the next few. Dont try and resolve everyhting all at once.
If bills aren't being paid you will by default be put on a more expensive tariff. The above posts deal with poa, you can set up a dd for 5 quid pcm, paid from your account, to restore you to the dd cheaper tarrif.
Despite how simple I make this sound, the whole process is time consuming and emotionally exhausting, so try and sort out a few bills at a time and then come back for the next few. Dont try and resolve everyhting all at once
Absolutely excellent advice👍
My situation was pre digital certs and I can confirm it is a long journey. But, once every thing is in place life will become much easier from an admin point of view
Just to add - I've been working through with my dad some issues around reluctance to leave certain suppliers. He has been on some very poor value tarrifs, which a few years ago he would have been all over
Companies see older customers as a cash cow, when I took over my parents accounts I found out they were paying the aa c 250 pa, British gas boiler protection over 400. One quick phone call halved the prices. Best thing to do is get your name on the contract so you can negotiate directly.