mandates

[bess-d]

to start a joint bank account at any bank. has the two persons involved got to sign a mandate form at the bank prior to opening this account. especially when the money to be put into the joint account is in one of the persons savings accounts and belongs to that person and none of the money belongs to the other person. the question i would like to know here is. can the mandate form be sent to the person who has no money in the account that is to be changed into a joint account to be signed by them. then to get the person who owns the money to sign the form before sending it back to the bank. would you say the bank was at fault here and should have sent the mandate form out to the person who owned the money first so they would be aware of what the form was for and not the other person to get the signitures. surely this would mean that anyone could have a mandate form sent out to there address to start a joint account with someone who is not aware of what they are signing for. for instance if they were handicaped in any way and were not aware of what they were doing they could suddenly find that there money has been stolen and there would be nothing they could do about this. is there anyone out there been in a situation similar to this as i think the banks need to change there approach in things like this

[BenDToy]

I am finding it very difficult to follow what you are saying, but I will have a go anyway. A joint account is just that, a shared account. The bank cannot be held liable for the source of the money which is put in to the account. Opening the account is a simple matter of proving ID and providing signatures. Putting money into it is a separate transaction, and obviously requires a transfer of funds which needs to be authorised in the same way as any other financial transaction. It would be the same as writing a cheque or a direct debit. If it is properly authorised, then the bank can hardly be held responsible for honouring it. After all that is their main purpose. I hope this is helpful, and I also hope that you, or someone close to you, has not been the victim of a scam.

[BenDToy]

I have jusr re-read your question, and you are suggesting that an existing account has been changed to a joint account. Obviously if this was the case, then the paperwork should have been sent to the original account holder in the first instance (unless of course it was just a blank form that was sent out).