What is a third party mandate?
A third party mandate is a first direct specific document that gives another person (a ‘third party’) access to your bank account. It’s a request from you to first direct, telling us you’d like another person as well as you, to carry out everyday banking transactions on your first direct bank account.
These everyday transactions don’t include arranging a formal overdraft or opening or closing an account for you.
Giving someone else access to your first direct accounts
Sometimes, people need help to manage their bank accounts.
If a first direct customer is able to make their own decisions, officially known as having ‘mental capacity’, then a third-party mandate can be put in place to allow another person access to their bank accounts.
A third-party mandate can’t be used in circumstances where one of our customers no longer has ‘mental capacity’.
More information about ‘mental capacity’
Someone with ‘mental capacity’ is able to make their own decisions.
Someone who may be lacking ‘mental capacity’ could have suffered an illness or be living with a disability such as a mental health problem, dementia or a learning disability and they can’t do one or more of the following four things:
- understand information given to them about a particular decision
- retain that information long enough to be able to make the decision
- weigh up the information available to make the decision
- communicate their decision.
We all make decisions – whether they’re big or small, every day and most of us are able to make them for ourselves. We may need to check information, seek advice and ask for support for the more serious or complex decisions, but we can come to a conclusion for ourselves. For a large number of people, their capacity to make certain decisions about their life is affected by either a temporary or a permanent basis.
If you're caring for someone who doesn't have mental capacity, there may be a way to set up protection for their finances, visit gov.uk Opens an overlay [Will show a security message first] for guidance and forms about court protection.
Could a third party mandate be right for me?
You may use a third party mandate if you need help managing your accounts for convenience or because you don’t have access to them. For example, you may choose a third party mandate if you are housebound or in hospital because of an injury or illness.
What important information do I need to know?
You must have ‘mental capacity’ when a third party mandate is used on your account.
Restrictions
A third party mandate will only give the other person access to the first direct accounts you have open at the time it’s issued. If you’d like to give them access to any accounts you open in the future, you would need to submit another third party mandate at that point.
The third party will only have access to your existing bank accounts, however if there are no restrictions to what the third party can do, they may be able to view balances and payment details of existing lending products such as mortgages, loans and credit cards.
The third party can’t make payments on your behalf from their own bank accounts, but are able to make transfers between your accounts and products.
If you’d like to restrict what the other person can do with your account, simply tell us when you call. For security reasons, this will also prevent them from having access to Telephone Banking and a debit card.
Responsibility
As the third party is your representative, you are responsible for the actions and decisions they carry out with respect to your account. If the third party makes a payment that you have not authorised, you must let us know immediately. There may be instances where we need to raise a report to the police.
How do I put a third party mandate in place?
If you need a third party mandate, call us on 03 456 100 100 and we’ll take you through the process.