PaunchyPirate
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
My mother is 85. She is in good health and of sound mind. No signs of dementia or anything like that. However, she over the last year or two she has grown to be more easily confused about situations that arise with her financial accounts. Mostly related to online access, email and phone message notifications, etc.
Mom has in iPhone and a Windows computer. She is quite good at using both for her needs. But she also tends to click on things she shouldn't, open emails she shouldn't, etc. When she has to contact customer service for anything, the combination of her poor hearing (even with her hearing aids) and her age often lead her to confusion about what the agent says or asks her to do. Then when she discusses these things with me, she often can't recall the specific details of what happened to help me help her figure out what needs to be done. I live 5 miles away from her, so I can rush over to her apartment as needed to help her deal with things, but that is getting old.
For example, she just received an email that supposedly came from her local bank. It indicated that someone tried to add (or did add) a payee to her bank account's bill pay capabilities. The email had a phone number to call, so she called it. But she could not get thru the phone systems automated menus to accomplish anything. She says she gave the system her phone number and her PIN number, but they said that info didn't match their system. So she hung up. She called me asking what to do. I told her she should never call a number in an email message like that. So I looked up the customer service number from the banks website and gave that to her to call. She thinks it's the same number as was in the email, but she wasn't at her computer to verify that while I was talking to her. Anyway... I found that he bank branch is open for another hour, so she is going to drive to the bank and see someone in person about this.
Anyway, that's just one of many such situations that have started to arise with more frequency.
I'm starting to feel that perhaps it is time for me to step up my involvement in her accounts in some way. She is not concerned about me in any way. I have her username and password for several financial accounts already. But because she is horrible with password management, she has changed passwords now and then on things so I can no longer get into the accounts without going to her house. Or the access requires a code sent via text message to her phone number, which is a phone I don't have in front of me at my home.
I'm curious how others have helped their aging parents deal with this sort of increasing level of confusion and risk. She's been pretty good about dealing with her aging and how it affects her. So I think she will be open minded if I propose some changes to her. But I'm not sure how it would work logistically to "take over her finances", for example.
Will some of you share your experiences with this type of thing, please. Thanks.
Mom has in iPhone and a Windows computer. She is quite good at using both for her needs. But she also tends to click on things she shouldn't, open emails she shouldn't, etc. When she has to contact customer service for anything, the combination of her poor hearing (even with her hearing aids) and her age often lead her to confusion about what the agent says or asks her to do. Then when she discusses these things with me, she often can't recall the specific details of what happened to help me help her figure out what needs to be done. I live 5 miles away from her, so I can rush over to her apartment as needed to help her deal with things, but that is getting old.
For example, she just received an email that supposedly came from her local bank. It indicated that someone tried to add (or did add) a payee to her bank account's bill pay capabilities. The email had a phone number to call, so she called it. But she could not get thru the phone systems automated menus to accomplish anything. She says she gave the system her phone number and her PIN number, but they said that info didn't match their system. So she hung up. She called me asking what to do. I told her she should never call a number in an email message like that. So I looked up the customer service number from the banks website and gave that to her to call. She thinks it's the same number as was in the email, but she wasn't at her computer to verify that while I was talking to her. Anyway... I found that he bank branch is open for another hour, so she is going to drive to the bank and see someone in person about this.
Anyway, that's just one of many such situations that have started to arise with more frequency.
I'm starting to feel that perhaps it is time for me to step up my involvement in her accounts in some way. She is not concerned about me in any way. I have her username and password for several financial accounts already. But because she is horrible with password management, she has changed passwords now and then on things so I can no longer get into the accounts without going to her house. Or the access requires a code sent via text message to her phone number, which is a phone I don't have in front of me at my home.
I'm curious how others have helped their aging parents deal with this sort of increasing level of confusion and risk. She's been pretty good about dealing with her aging and how it affects her. So I think she will be open minded if I propose some changes to her. But I'm not sure how it would work logistically to "take over her finances", for example.
Will some of you share your experiences with this type of thing, please. Thanks.