Corona Virus Concerns
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Corona Virus Concerns led me to think about making sure that if I was a victim then my wife would be able to access all the things she needed to, in terms of passwords etc.
It has certainly been an eye opener reading the last few pages re cards and accounts.
We have a joint bank account and no credit cards.
I have a current account, that was opened when I needed to keep some expenses separate from our account, and this is now our 'online card' with no more than £300 in it which is used on tinternet
We have no savings accounts, when the rates were good we had no money and now we do the rates are poor, other than as part of our Nationwide Flex Plus account, which we took out for the benefits such as travel insurance, and is also used for business fuel costs which are then claimed back from my company.
I had no idea if this was 'normal' but seems its quite simplistic compared to some.
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Plenty's wrong with it and nobody wants to take it at present.
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It's a bit old fashioned now and not very convenient even putting aside the cleanliness issue of its use! About eight weeks ago I drew out £50 from the ATM and its still in my wallet. I now only use it for limited things like a haircut or parking. For those of us that use Club sites you are forced to have cash available just in case you need buy something from reception.
David
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Our elderly neighbours pay us in cash for the Waitrose delivery we hand over to them. We put the money into a weak bleach solution, thanks to plastic notes, then discovered we'd been handed a paper £20 note this week. It survived , then OH checked if it was still legal, it is.
Our neighbours were subject to a phone line bank fraud last year, they do have a card each but both are vulnerable and seem to use cash most of the time.
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We keep everything as simple as possible, having had to run my Mum's bank account for her along with mine when she became unable to so. I want things to be easy for our children in the same position. I presume some have children who keep complicated accounts too so they've passed on the accounts gene.
But for ours it will be simple. I ran the accounts at work by the way, I liked doing it but I have more enjoyment doing other things now. 
Let's hope we come out of all this with our health even if the economy isn't as before.
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As TW says, it's not very popular at the moment. Then there is the fact you have to get it. In normal times we visit the bank in town periodically, to obtain the cash we require. That's hardly an essential journey and I don't want to go into town at the moment. So I have been forced to use the ATM in the village, which I hate doing. They are so easy to tamper with. Veg mans card reader was on the blink this week, so that ate into my cash a bit.☹️
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Talking about keeping children etc informed of banks etc, I keep and update a farm manual. I do most of the farm business stuff (accounts/stock movements/medicine book/payroll/milk production etc) so I have created a manual with screen shots and detailed instructions of what and when to do. A printed copy is nearby and a pdf copy across the yard at my sons.
I hope it's never used in anger.
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Yes, of course! That was the main reason I was given a crash course on how to operate our various accounts.
Like B2, I have it all written down, though in my case in my "finance" file on my PC, with password protection, and OH and our daughter both know the password. I have account numbers and access details, and update any balance changes every so often.
OH has all the "how to run the accounts" details in her head, but that would not work for me.
In operation, what we have is really much easier to look after than it sounds.
We only carry the 3 or 4 credit cards we might use regularly in the shops, plus the debit card for our main account, in case we need cash, which is rare. £30 can last for months. We never pay with the debit card. All other cards are kept locked away at home.
We have also recently updated our wills, and have had POAs in place for several years. All we need to do now is finish clearing out the loft....and the garage.....and the shed......and quite a few cupboards!
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indeed, well spotted, a lot of people miss that (and some interesting reasons why) and often it was funny to see kids faces when I used to point the difference between phones and calculators as they had never spotted it.
I used the word keyboard but meant the keys on a cash machine, sorry for any possible confusion I caused you and thanks for taking the time pointing it out. But as SteveL was talking about PIN I thought it was clear enough, anyway does anyone enter their PIN into a computer?
Actually when entering my details on a computer I use the ones across the top not the numbers keys on the right side, perhaps that's juts me
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Would it be pedantic of me to mention it is just PIN, not PIN number
I'm sure many will say yes so count that as a rhetorical question.
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Yep our wills were updated last year after changes of the 'rules' in the 16 years since they'd been done previously, we got lazy about reviewing and a very near miss for OH concentrated our minds. In fact the date it started we'd been to visit the solicitor, the family firm closed several years, and we were passed to a chain before hence the neglect. When I phoned her to say what had happened she was VERY keen to secure changes, they were minor, and Power of Attorney's. I pointed out that as the wife of someone awaiting heart surgery I did not want things ramped up and in his face. After all if the worse happened, yes we did have a weekend on end of life care 6 weeks later! It would have been as it was in the previous years. I also found the hospital very accommodating on intervention, they did check his views when he requested breakfast on the 1st morning 😂😱.
Wasn't comfortable with that solicitor and her unclear explanations, so once things were sorted we used a great lady solicitor recommended by a friend. All sorted with speed, friendliness, compassion and a giggle 😀. Her crystal ball was a cloudy as ours!!
Being executors and POA's for others focuses the mind. Mind you my brother and I bottled probate for my late mum earlier this year - just seemed simpler to hand it over for a modest fee and no headache, head scratching and form filling for us!
We should all be conscious of leaving a muddle for others. Wish I could say our lift wont cause headaches..... But the money side is clear!
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I had to sort out Dad’s finances when he passed away. They did everything separately, and had far too many of the same thing. It took me months, faceless fools following a script on the phone “we need to speak to the card holder” reply “good luck with that, he ain’t with us no more”. Trust me, simplify things. I now share an account with Mum, all agreed. It’s just so much easier. Get house bills in joint names as well. We have sorted all ours.
You do not know what is round the corner, and it can be life changing in minutes. BIL had a stroke, cannot speak properly, cannot do figures, memory affected. Everything was in his name, his daughter spent almost a year trying to sort his business, pension, whole life out!
One joint account, linked to a joint savings account. Both have separate Debit cards. OH has a Credit Card, I don’t need one, but do have the number. Job done.
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I would expect so. If I need my finances looked after for me then I would not be out and about using a credit card, so they could go.
The majority of our pensions, and all our household bills are paid through our main, joint, account, and any savings in my name left by then could easily be moved to one account.
Would probably take OH or DD a day to organise as the POAs are already registered and ready for use.
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All information documented and kept in a safe place, always updated before we head off on a trip and details of where it is left with my sister. Neither of our kids live near us so no point in telling them.
Nationwide cards are our everyday use ones. The others are only there to earn money (haha as if)
When we do go away we only carry a cc each (different provider) and a caxton card different accounts.
EDIT it might be worth saying, part of OH's job before retiring was running multiple accounts and also inspecting accounts for other Military Units. I think we know what we are doing been doing it a long time
We don't have wills by the way or POA's set up. Might get round to it one day.
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Just having read through some of these items about finances should anything happen to us. Oh dear, we would be well and truly scuppered! OH does the accounts and although I have watched the machinations at various times, it’s all double dutch to me the way he does it. There are spreadsheet files within other files and other spreadsheets dealing with savings in other files. We have POA’s and wills but as one son lives in Hertfordshire and the other son in Macau they would have no more clue than me where to find anything on the computer. Whenever we can see the Hertfordshire family here again I think he will have to get a crash course! 🥴😱
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If you have your own business/farm, extra urgent that things are well sorted. Anything not can take months if not years to fully untangle, and can leave family and even workforce very vulnerable. The vast majority of us bumble along nicely until a life changing happens, the added financial spiders web is not what you want at such times. Two houses on our street are still empty three years on while the legalities of who owns what are being disentangled. Turns out owner was a rather naughty boy in more ways than one!😱
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Agree.
Hubby's sister passed away unexpectedly (she was only 47) a few years ago and her finances were a nightmare for him and his other sister to untangle.
I happened to be at her house one particular day helping them sort through piles and piles of mainly junk mail and in amongst it I found her life insurance policy!!!!
It saved the family a few thousand pounds, but could easily have ended up in the shredder.
I'm 47 now and I've made sure everyone knows where all my paperwork is, because you never know....
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Been for my covid test this morning , drive through outside hospital ,shut .. Into hospital , very quite ,security guard stopped me on way in ,to ask where i was going , stood six inches away from me to point where to go no mask on !! oh well all done
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As regards POA , have found cheapest way to send original POA is to send photocopies verified at post office so you keep original . saves any messing about waiting to get original back . or paying solicitor to verify . you are allowed 3 for one price
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