# Paying my father's bills



## dillsquatt (9 Feb 2017)

We have set up Enduring Power of Attorney for my father (its not registered in court as yet), he is still lucid so we wont be registering it yet for a while.   As its not registered in court it doesn't suffice for bank.   We have lots of bills to pay for him at the moment and its causing stress as they are mounting up - is there a mandate we can set up with bank (Bank of Ireland ) in order to pay his bills - he doesn't own cheque book ..its causing too much stress constantly asking him for money - what is the best way around this.   Every time I contact the solicitor they charge us fees so don't want to do down that route ?  

Many thanks in advance


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## demoivre (9 Feb 2017)

Direct debit for the regular stuff. Order a cheque book and pay the irregular bills with cheques, that he can sign if he's compos mentis *or* obtain Power of Attorney from him, which doesn't require you to go to a solicitor.


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## Brendan Burgess (9 Feb 2017)

If your father is happy for you to pay his bills, then he should give you a lump of money with which to pay them for three months at a time. 

Brendan


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## odyssey06 (9 Feb 2017)

You should phone up now with all your utility providers e.g. home insurance, household waste, electricity etc and get yourself setup as a notified person on the policy\account and can request changes etc etc
It'll just need your dad on each initial call to give the OK.


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## valery (9 Feb 2017)

Your father can instruct his bank to set you up as an authorised signatory on his account.  
This involves both of you calling into his bank with ID and in your case proof of address.  
You will be issued with an ATM card and also can be registered for online banking.


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## dillsquatt (10 Feb 2017)

valery said:


> Your father can instruct his bank to set you up as an authorised signatory on his account.
> This involves both of you calling into his bank with ID and in your case proof of address.
> You will be issued with an ATM card and also can be registered for online banking.


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## G7979 (10 Feb 2017)

Set up online banking for the account?


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## Marsha25 (10 Feb 2017)

You can be a signatory on your dad's account or a full joint account holder, assuming he is happy with this.  As a third party signatory you can set up direct debits but cannot request details on account such as balance or transactions. As full joint account holder the account would be yours also.  That might not go down well with other siblings as when your dad dies that joint account won't form part of his estate. The easiest way for regular bills is for him to sign direct debit forms for each utility bill.  However he would need to ensure funds are always there to cover them so online banking would be handy.


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## elcato (10 Feb 2017)

I would set up online banking immediately. It will save you a lot of hassle down the line. Have your father on the phone with you and school him through the required answers to set this up.


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