Banks or building societies that are known to be LPA friendly?

[TedSwippet]

Is there a list somewhere, or can anyone recommend, any banks or building societies that make it straightforward to open a new account under Power of Attorney (LPA)?

I have LPA for my mother, and have just endured a set of frustrations trying to open an account with Post Office Savings, to the point where I have been forced to simply give up. The online application process was smooth and easy. Then comes the "we just need a little more information" email.

Hmm. This "little more information" turns out to be a copy of the complete LPA (which must be certified by a notary or solicitor), and certified copies of separate ID and proof of address for both myself and my mother. My mother has none of the allowable IDs. Her passport expired in 2017, she has never driven so no driving licence, she does not live in Northern Ireland so no electoral ID, she is not from the EU so no EU ID card, and so on. Her bank statements all come to my address, so I cannot even "confirm" the linked account in the manner required. Talking this through with Post Office Savings, they were adamant that they would not open an account for my mother without all of this.

Even if all of this were available, the cost of certifying it alone and then mailing it in would consume a considerable chunk of the account's interest. Beyond which, this is a variable rate account, so there's an evens chance that it will prove uncompetitive in just a few months, which would mean starting again elsewhere.

Does anyone have any success stories they can share? Cases where opening a new account under LPA didn't require infeasible amounts of work, cost, and delay? Any other suggestions for ways to make this whole thing easier?

[swill453]

In matters relating to Powers of Attorney and death registration, probate etc., I have been most impressed with Nationwide. They did everything quickly and efficiently.

RBS was middling, getting everything done eventually with a modicum of hassle.

National Savings and Investments was worst in my experience, going as far as an official complaint, compensation and six months elapsed time.

(This is in Scotland.)

Scott.

[the0ni0nking]

I have just been through the process with my parents but I think I was fortunate in as much as I haven't needed to open a new bank account. I've also found pretty much all the banks/building societies I've had to deal with pretty good.

NB - the LPA was registered at the OPG in 2019 but I only activated it in Dec-24. Upon activation and registering at One.gov.uk (https://use-lasting-power-of-attorney.s ... ov.uk/home) each organisation has pretty much done what I've needed them to do to facilitate my access quickly - I now have access to all the accounts that I'm aware of.

My parents have a joint account (which has my dad's private and state pension paid into it) and through which all the household bills etc are paid out of. That is with HSBC and as this was the first organisation I dealt with, I went into a branch to sort it - I had all my documents to prove who I was as well as their bank statements etc and they went through the registration process with me in branch.

Once it had been validated and registered (took about 3 working days), I went into branch and they set me up with online banking. As my dad no longer has mental capacity (of any meaningful amount), HSBC stopped his cards. I could have requested a card if I wanted. They said that they recommended opening an individual basic bank account if I had wanted him to have a card to use if he were to purchase small items etc (as the basic account can't go overdrawn) which I debated but his health has deteriorated so quickly this has become a non-issue.

With Halifax, I registered it all over the phone and they required me to have a card even though I didn't want one.

Neither of which answers your questions as to opening a new one - but I'd ask the question why do you want a new account for her as opposed to using existing ones or adding a separate account with an existing institution she has a relationship with.

As an aside - if you are looking at improving returns on cash balances, I had no issues with NS&I (all via telephone and now on-line - as I have an NS&I account, when you register the POA they link the accounts to your own - so I log in as me and then have access to both my parents accounts and can act accordingly).

I also had no issued with Leeds Building Society in opening a new ISA for my dad there (he already had an account) and it was pleasant to be seen in a relaxed atmosphere in a branch local to me (500 yards or so walk) as opposed to all the other institutions where the only branches are now in the city centre). If Leeds is reflective of other BS, I'd imagine Skipton BS would also be a good bet as well as Yorkshire BS - and you may, as I did, find yourself in receipt of a savings passbook for the first time in maybe 30 years!

[yorkshirelad1]

You may need to use LPA (because e.g. your mother has lost capacity). However, if you just need access to your Mum's bank accounts to help her with everyday stuff and keep an eye on things, and both of you have still got all your marbles, many banks offer "Third Party Authority" (that's what Barclays call it IIRC). This uses their own forms, they understand what it means and you don't have to jump through all the hassle that sometimes seems to be involved in getting banks to recognise LPA. "Third Party Authority" (in Barclays case) pretty much allowed me to do everything I needed to help Mum, I had full online and phone access and everything that allowed. Just a thought and something to throw into the mix. You may still want to get through LPA for your parents main bank accounts, but the "third party authority" might be a quick fix for something that might be a short-term account.

See e.g. https://www.barclays.co.uk/third-party-access/ (I have no connection with Barclays other than as a customer, which has useful as Mum was also a Barclays customer so I didn't have to jump through additional ID hoops)

[the0ni0nking]

Also just seen this on MSE which provides a useful summary of providers and ratings:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banki ... -attorney/

[TedSwippet]

Neither of which answers your questions as to opening a new one - but I'd ask the question why do you want a new account for her as opposed to using existing ones or adding a separate account with an existing institution she has a relationship with.

As a result of inheriting my late father's accounts in mid 2024, my mother is now well over the FSCS limits in all three of the banks with which she has accounts (Santander, Lloyds, and Nationwide). I only recently took all over all of this. Santander and Nationwide have handled LPAs well, Lloyds not so much.

These three are all big and solid banks, so perhaps I'm overthinking the FSCS issue. However, I've been around this long enough to remember Northern Rock and Kaupthing.

Additional to the FSCS issue, my main spur to action just now is to improve my mother's sizeable easy access ISA with Santander, which she's had for years. It is especially poor, currently 1.2%, and dropping to 1% starting mid-Feb; this is not an interest rate, it is a message to drop this account. However, moving this to one of her other banks will worsen the FSCS protection issue, and Santander's only other ISA offering is a mediocre 1 year fix. A fix is not entirely out of the question, particularly a short-ish one such as this, but I'm reluctant to tie up money for a 91 year old if I can avoid it.

As an aside - if you are looking at improving returns on cash balances, I had no issues with NS&I (all via telephone and now on-line - as I have an NS&I account, when you register the POA they link the accounts to your own - so I log in as me and then have access to both my parents accounts and can act accordingly).

It's certainly the case though that using her existing banks is far easier than opening somewhere new. We did manage to open NS&I under LPA, which would be fine except that NS&I specifically does not accept ISA transfers in. So far though, this is the only new account success.

It seems I was just staggeringly naive to assume that opening a new account with Post Office Savings under LPA would be achievable. Their online account opening process makes it look like it's something they routinely handle, just click the "applying under LPA" box and continue. It's only when you get the ID requirements later on that it dawns that it won't work. Looking at their requirements, I'd imagine nearly all the LPA applications they get fall at this hurdle too.

Also just seen this on MSE which provides a useful summary of providers and ratings:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banki ... -attorney/

Thanks. I missed that earlier. Useful information, although rather depressing to note that many good options only work if the donor already holds an account there.

My master plan is to try to push through all of this with HL Active Savings. On asking, they at least hinted that it might be possible. It'll doubtless be frustrating, slow, and tiresome, but if I can achieve success there, that should open up a good selection of both ISA and non-ISA accounts that I can use without going through this hassle with each bank. It doesn't help that my mother's LPA is still the old-style paper version, registered with the OPG in 2011 and so not the new-style online codes one.

[GeoffF100]

I have a friend who uses the Skipton, Leeds and Yorkshire Building Societies for his father. I believe he said the Leeds was best and the Skipton was terrible, but that is just his experience. They all offer branch service too, if you have local branches. I have another friend who speaks highly of the Skipton and operates a passbook account for his father.

[DrFfybes]

We've done this with dozens (literally) of institutions, MrsF's parents had 50+ cash accounts with 17 providers when they finally allowed us to access them (they opened new ISAs each year and didn't realise they could transfer them), and my mum had few legacy ones.

If you want to do it properly, then really by far the simplest way is to use somewhere with a branch you can walk into. It still won't necessarily be straighforwards, but at least you get a morning out and a cake and coffe whist waiting to speak to someone and you do get the documents sorted there and then. Also if you already have an account it helps a lot.

Mum and I had RBS accounts, it was a doddle - just their own 1 page form. Marcus were a nightmare, 2 months of faffing with mismathed signatures and missing sheets from the PoA until eventually I got them to send me their copy of the one I sent them (which initially they refused due to data protection and my signature wan't on their copy). It turned out they'd only scanned one side of the double sided document I'd sent.

Skipton were great, nationwide sort of competent, Lloyds were so bad we got compensation, although Halifax were fine.

Another option is to open the account online with the person sat next to you, and then log in as them to sort things. However that is naughty and Not Allowed, irrespective of how tempting it might be.

Paul