The Treasury is finalising plans for money lying in dormant accounts to be used for charitable and community projects. Could some of it be yours?
Last week, Halifax announced that it was launching a concerted campaign to reunite its customers with their money. Apparently, they've got some £44 million lying around in more than 100,000 inactive accounts. Other banks and building societies are also sitting on hundreds of millions of pounds of unclaimed money -- usually because customers have changed addresses and have forgotten to notify them or they've died without leaving sufficient information.
The reason for the campaign is because the Chancellor of the Exchequer wants to get his hands on the funds to use for 'good causes'. Although his plans have yet to be finalised, so far he's indicated that he will target accounts that have been lying dormant for 15 years or more but has promised that customers who eventually step forward to claim their money will still be able to get it back.
According to the Building Societies Association, the amounts involved in dormant or inactive accounts tends to be small - usually less than £100 - and they tend to be savings accounts. Whether you think you may have an account with Halifax or with any other bank or building society, then both the British Banking Association and the Building Societies Association offer advice on their websites regarding tracing forgotten accounts.
Forgotten funds also lie with other institutions - an estimated £15 billion, in fact!. For example, it's surprisingly easy to 'lose' an occupational or personal pension if you change jobs frequently or if your former employer changes names long after you've moved on. If you think you might have joined a scheme albeit for a comparatively short period of time, the Pension Service carries details of more than 200,000 UK pension schemes, and offers a free tracing service for individuals.
Investment companies are rather fond of changing the names too or closing down the funds you invest in - especially when they're not doing so well. For unit trusts or OEICs, if you can at least remember the name of the original company and the fund you invested in, the industry's trade body, the Investment Management Association may be able to help. In the case of investment trusts, you'll need to contact the Association of Investment Trust Companies.
The rash of building societies demutualising in the Nineties has also led to customers failing to collect millions of shares in companies that have gone public. So if you think you may have a long-lost shareholding in a UK-listed firm, contact the relevant company and ask for details of its registrars who can issue replacement share certificates and pay any unclaimed dividends. If you don't know what the company is now called, get in touch with the London Stock Exchange who should be able to tell you if a listed company has been taken over, changed its name or if it still exists.
You may find it easier to contact the Unclaimed Assets Register which charges a fixed fee to search on your behalf, 10% of which goes to charity. Not only will they look for pensions, share dividends, and unit trusts but they'll also check for unclaimed life policies too. The fee is £18 for each search.
And finally, National Savings & Investments is currently sitting on well over £1 billion of unclaimed money. Part of it comes from unclaimed Premium Bond winnings but there are many savings accounts that are lying dormant too. Use their free tracing service find forgotten accounts or to get replacement Premium Bonds if you've lost the certificates.