If you've ever stashed a pound or more in a savings account you no longer have access to, don't write it off, claim it back. We show you how.
If you lost a fiver somewhere in your home, would you make an effort to find it? What about if you were short-changed by £1 at the supermarket? Would you say something?
I'm guessing that unless you are pretty wealthy your answer is likely to be yes. After all, these sums may be small but most of us can't afford to lose money, and being overcharged by companies that make billions in profit is just plain infuriating!
This perhaps makes it all the more surprising to realise that we aren't all as vigilant with our savings as we could be. According to analysts, we Brits have a whopping £435m sitting in savings accounts that have lain untouched for years! That's over £7 for every man, woman and child in the UK in unused accounts -- you'd think we'd have missed it!
Dormant Accounts
So what's the definition of an unused or "dormant" account? Well, an account is typically classed as dormant once a bank or building society has lost contact with the account holder for a period of three years. Once dormant, the account holder will not be able to access their account in any of the normal ways, such as in the branch, over the phone or by the internet. Instead, you'd have to write to the bank or building society and ask for your account to be reactivated. You'll also probably have to prove your identity with some form of ID.
So how can so much money have been left unclaimed? Well, there can be many reasons. Moving house is the most common -- many of us change address and forget to tell our banks/building societies. Gradually, we forget about the account, espcially if there's not much in it to begin with.
Alternatively, you may have had a savings account set up for you while you were a child that you've lost the passbook for -- and with many banks and building societies having merged or been taken over in the meantime tracking it down can be nigh on impossible. In many cases the account holder may have died, leaving loved ones with no idea the money even exists.
So what happens to the money in the meantime? Well, it stays where it is, continuing to earn interest (if entitled) and is still classed legally as your cash. At least, that's what happens at the moment.
You've probably heard that the government has radical new plans to put this money in these dormant accounts to good use by transfering it to a central fund where it could be used to fund youth services and community projects. In this case a dormant account would be classed as one that has remained untouched for ten to fifteen years.
So what should you do if you believe you have money sitting in a dormant account? Well, it may not be as hard to track down as you may think. The British Banking Association, Building Societies Association and National Savings & Investments each provide help to those trying to track down lost cash.
What's more, the Treasury Select Committee has published a report today that has recommended that all banks, building societies and National Savings should look to actively reunite their customers with these dormant funds. As a result, instead of having to carry out these three separate searches, it is recommended that we should be able to carry out just one, searching all three bodies. And some banks such as Halifax and HSBC are already actively looking to reunite their customers with any long lost funds.
But in the meantime, check out the British Banking Association, Building Societies Association and National Savings and Investments (NS&I) for details on how to search for any accounts you've lost touch with. Good Luck!