Banks & legal power of attorney

Remember I've got legal power of attorney to run my aunt's affairs.

Aunty's bank has stopped me using her debit card, which means I can't pay for her services by card until they send me a new one. I did not ask the bank to stop it. We even had a discussion about aunt's card and the card I use. I rang and checked with the bank and they said the card was working at the beginning of the month, but now they've stopped it. The first I knew was when people started to ring me to ask for cheques because the card wouldn't go through. So now I have to write letters to the bank to get the card sorted again. Otherwise I'll have to write at least five cheques a month, and envelopes to go with them and cover notes to identify the invoice that the cheques are paying.

It really is a pain working with these banks - they don't understand Power of Attorney

Banking idiots

Aunty's bank has registered the Legal Power of Attorney, so wrote to me telling me I could now start telephoning banking. I rang them up. They didn't ask for aunty's details but asked for my password.

But I don't have a password yet.
The computer in front of me is asking for a password.
How can it be doing that?
Do you have an account with us?
No I closed it in 2002.
I think they haven't closed down the old telephone password. I'll have to speak to my manager.

How awful is that! What security of information is that! And doesn't it break the 1998 Data Protection Act that says data should be

• Adequate, relevant and not excessive
• Accurate and up to date
• Not kept for longer than is necessary?
  

The bank is going to send me a new form to complete again, now they've deleted the old password. But it's horribly bad service, and it's as well that I closed the account with them years ago.