Good Bank Account for SSI Recipient with Representative Payee?
December 6, 2021 7:23 AM Subscribe
I am someone's SSI payee and the payee recommendations suggest creating a bank account for the recipient but I have no idea what bank or type of account to use or how to set this up. Any guidance would be appreciated (specific suggestions would be great but I'm also happy to receive links to articles or fora where this is discussed).
Additional information:They can only have $2000 at most so this would need to be something without a lot of fees or penalties for low balances.
It must show the beneficiary's ownership of the funds with me as the financial agent (I cannot have any ownership of the funds)
I would like to be able to write checks from this account and do wire transfers if at all possible for payment of rent, &c.
If I can set it up online that would be ideal but if I have to go to a bank in person I will
There is more information in the PDF Guide for Representative Payees if that's helpful.
Additional information:
There is more information in the PDF Guide for Representative Payees if that's helpful.
Best answer: I can't recommend any particular bank because we used the one I already had an account at. Whichever one you pick should have a way of doing this pretty easily -- at least it didn't seem like a big deal for them when we did it. The two of us went in person to open a new account & explained what we needed, clearly specifying that it couldn't be just a regular joint account. The account is theirs, not mine, & on the statements it says
[my name]
for [their name]
or maybe the "for" is on the first line, whatever. Other than that it's just a regular account. I have the debit card, the checkbook, the username & password for all the online stuff. I don't think anyone at SSA ever actually questioned us about it in any way besides sending the standard form at the end of the year that asks how you spent the money.
posted by The AhForgetIt Tendency at 2:06 PM on December 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
[my name]
for [their name]
or maybe the "for" is on the first line, whatever. Other than that it's just a regular account. I have the debit card, the checkbook, the username & password for all the online stuff. I don't think anyone at SSA ever actually questioned us about it in any way besides sending the standard form at the end of the year that asks how you spent the money.
posted by The AhForgetIt Tendency at 2:06 PM on December 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I also cannot recommend a specific institution not knowing your location. But, when I was setting up my son's SSI, the Social Security person who I was working with recommended a local credit union I already had accounts with. I was told that they would be familiar with the Representative Payee accounts. The credit union was and it was very easy to get things arranged.
Also, about a year down the line, and after 2 attempts at it, I was able to have the funds deposited directly into the Rep Payee account. This bypasses having the funds dispersed into a debit card and then having to dodge fees to move the funds into the Rep Payee account.
posted by ericales at 11:45 AM on December 7, 2021
Also, about a year down the line, and after 2 attempts at it, I was able to have the funds deposited directly into the Rep Payee account. This bypasses having the funds dispersed into a debit card and then having to dodge fees to move the funds into the Rep Payee account.
posted by ericales at 11:45 AM on December 7, 2021
Best answer: when I was setting up my son's SSI, the Social Security person who I was working with recommended a local credit union I already had accounts with. I was told that they would be familiar with the Representative Payee accounts. The credit union was and it was very easy to get things arranged.
My mom was a rep payee for someone on SSDI. The only thing I would like to mention here is that when she died, we (her daughters and heirs) could not have any access to this account because, as you state above, she technically did not have ownership of the funds. Which was okay! It wasn't our money, but did create some small-scale hassles making sure we could close the account properly; even though it was an account with a very low minimum balance, it was a hassle to sort it out in a timely fashion. Only saying this to make sure that someone else who is not the SSI recipient knows the situation there, because it was a lot for us to untangle. Fortunately the bank was very nice about it.
My partner is the rep payee for his son who is on SSDI. He has an account at a credit union which he already had an existing account at. He has this account set up to automatically transfer money between this account and his son's account on a weekly basis. Having the entire thing be automated makes this all a LOT simpler. Weekly transfers of money he gets monthly also makes this a lot simpler. Some people are AOK with the whole "rep payee" situation and some are less so, or can become less so. Having an automatic transfer for spending money, if you are doing that, can make some of this a lot simpler.
In both cases, the answer was "small local bank" in one case a credit union and in another, just a small town bank.
posted by jessamyn at 7:48 PM on December 7, 2021
My mom was a rep payee for someone on SSDI. The only thing I would like to mention here is that when she died, we (her daughters and heirs) could not have any access to this account because, as you state above, she technically did not have ownership of the funds. Which was okay! It wasn't our money, but did create some small-scale hassles making sure we could close the account properly; even though it was an account with a very low minimum balance, it was a hassle to sort it out in a timely fashion. Only saying this to make sure that someone else who is not the SSI recipient knows the situation there, because it was a lot for us to untangle. Fortunately the bank was very nice about it.
My partner is the rep payee for his son who is on SSDI. He has an account at a credit union which he already had an existing account at. He has this account set up to automatically transfer money between this account and his son's account on a weekly basis. Having the entire thing be automated makes this all a LOT simpler. Weekly transfers of money he gets monthly also makes this a lot simpler. Some people are AOK with the whole "rep payee" situation and some are less so, or can become less so. Having an automatic transfer for spending money, if you are doing that, can make some of this a lot simpler.
In both cases, the answer was "small local bank" in one case a credit union and in another, just a small town bank.
posted by jessamyn at 7:48 PM on December 7, 2021
Response by poster: Thank you for the responses! For posterity, in case anyone is looking at this in the future, I went with a nearby credit union; I just called and ask them if they did representative payee accounts and they said they did (the account is in the beneficiary's name by my name which satisfies SSA requirements), and there's no minimum balance so that works out nicely. Thanks again to everyone for the replies!
posted by an octopus IRL at 9:05 AM on January 6, 2022
posted by an octopus IRL at 9:05 AM on January 6, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
So, maybe a short consult with an elder care attorney is in order? Also, there are undoubtedly social services that can help. The SSA itself can be very helpful via telephone as well. Good luck!
posted by dbmcd at 1:23 PM on December 6, 2021