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[MSE Dan]

Hi

The Reclaim Lost Assets article discusses using websites like MyLostAccount, among others, to locate dormant bank accounts, savings and investments and reclaim your cash from them.

If you've used any of these to succesfully get cash back please reply to this thread and let us know. It'd be fab if you can include:

Amount reclaimed
Provider you reclaimed it from
Website used to search for the account
How long it all took

Anything else relevant you have time to let us and other MoneySavers know will be great. If you want to discuss the process in general, please go to Reclaiming Lost Assets discussion

Cheers folks,

Dan

[tottie666]

I found my old National Saving book last week, there was £10 left in it. I had read the part of the website about claiming forgotton money so... I took the book along to he post office and they gave me a form to fill in to close the account. This then had to be send off.
2 days ago I got a letter back saying the interest was £152. I had not used the account since 1992. I was gobsmacked - so went and got the cash. Without this site I would not have bothered. Thank you.

I urge all you money savers out there - RECLAIM LOST MONEY!!!

[MSE Dan]

HI folks,

We received this in the post to MoneySaving Towers recently, so i thought I'd share the great story of success.

Have edited it a bit in places to keep it short

Dear Mr Lewis,

I thought you might like to hear of my recent windfall. My father died in 1974 and I recently found some Life Assurance policies belonging to him in a shoebox in the loft.

I sent 2 of them to the Prudential, and they were very helpful. They paid the policy values and very generously also paid an additional allowance because of the time that had elapsed since my fathers claim arose, between 1974 and 2007.

I sent the other 2 policies to Royal London, though I was a bit disappointed because all they apid was the surrender value; and these policies were taken out in 1913 and 1926

Slight shame on those last 2, but at least he received some money. Imaghine the interest since 1913 though!!

Hope this spurs anyone on who is umming and ahhing over whether to bother

Dan

[treacym]

My husband recently had a letter from the Norwich Union about a policy he and his girlfriend at the time had with the Commercial Union. They have asked for contact details (old and current) and signatures of both him and his ex, and also the policy number.

When they split up and sold the flat they had bought I think the policy paperwork must have got lost. As this was back in the early 1980's my husband doesn't even remember what happened with this policy.

As Norwich Union have asked for these details we are assuming that because of the timing, i.e. 25 years, the policy has now matured and there is some money to come, and not that the Norwich Union want to add another two people to their marketing database.

As this is a joint policy between my husband and his ex will Norwich Union split any proceeds between the two of them or will they pay with one cheque and expect that my husband and his ex to sort it out between them.

I have traced my husbands ex and sent her the letter asking for her to complete her details and send back to us so that we can send on to Norwich Union with our details.

Anybody out there had this happen to them.

Madge

[Ringo6507]

I thought I had an old post office savings account as a child that I never closed.

Traced 2 accounts 35 years later. One had £7.00 in it!!!. But the other had £1380!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't have the book, so will still have a few hurdles to jump to get the money.

Excellent result.

[polus_]

I have a post office account from 1980 with £2 in it, wonder how much is in it now?

Edited:
Around £7.47 hmmm...

[missykh]

Hi all...

I want to say a big thank you to MSE, whilst browsing the site a few weeks ago I came across the article about reclaiming old savings accounts which prompted me to contact "My Lost Account". Nothing ventured, nothing gained I thought.

I have an account with NS&I which has been dormant since 2000 & I don't have the pass book. The procedure to reclaim my money couldnt have been simpler, one form to complete online that requested basic information. Two weeks later NS&I wrote to me confirming my application had found my account & would I send them my signature to complete the process.

Today I have received my pass book from NS&I with a healthy balance of just over five hundred pounds. 8 years interest 214.38. I couldnt urge anyone enough to reclaim their money.

Once again thanks Martin & the team at MSE for the invaluable advice you provide.

[sirmystery]

I have just found £3.34 in a TSB account that has not been used for about 20 years,
it will be given to a charity of my choice rather than being absorbed somewhere else.
Please check out your dormant accounts, it is easy, and you can decide what to do with any money in there, rather than the government making the decision.

[dunstonh]

Slight shame on those last 2, but at least he received some money. Imaghine the interest since 1913 though!!

Not a shame Dan. I think the poster has used incorrect terminology as you dont get paid a surrender value on death. Its more likely that they would have had a daily value and they pay out that value. The pru plans would almost certainly have been sum assured plus bonuses. So, in both cases, they did exactly what they were meant to do.

[enfield250]

Hello!
I don't know if you can class this as a sucess or not. I found an old bank book from The London trustee savings bank, it hadn't been touched since 1972.

There was only £2.45 in the account, but I tried the Mylostaccount site.
I got a reply form Lloyds TSB who took over the London trustee savings bank.

They could find no record of my account, even though I had given them the account number, address, branch etc. They said as a gesture of good will, if I took the book into my local branch they would pay me the balance plus interest to date.

I thought ok!

Took it into day, apparently in 36yrs the interest accrued is £4.05p.

I took the £6.50, what else could I do!

I must admit, I didn't know what to expect, but I left with the impression that, they didn't know what to do, and some manager said offer 5% per year and see if he will accept it.

After that experience I shalln't be opening account with Lloyds TSB.

[Dr. Martini]

Saw details of mylostaccount on this site - and thought about a few old Premium Bonds I used to have (about ten years ago).

I contacted NS&I (through mylostaccount), and after some time they wrote back saying they couldnt locate them. So I gave up on them.

Then a few months later NS&I sent me another letter saying that they MIGHT have located them. I had to verify my signature.
Today (quite a few months later - I'd guess it's at the very least 5 months) I recieved my certificate - and it turns out that there's £45 worth of them.

Better still having just checked the NS&I site it appears that I won £50 in the October draw - nice one!!

However - I hope someone here can help me with this - the NS&I site only checks the past 6 months. How do I know whether or not I have won anything else over the past 10 years??!!
And also the NS&I site isnt very clear on how I get hold of the £50 I won - maybe they'll send that to me soon?

Either way....thanks very much to this site for helping me to relocate them. I'm (at least) £95 better off.

[kahwilts]

Originally Posted by Dr. Martini

Saw details of mylostaccount on this site - and thought about a few old Premium Bonds I used to have (about ten years ago).

I contacted NS&I (through mylostaccount), and after some time they wrote back saying they couldnt locate them. So I gave up on them.

Then a few months later NS&I sent me another letter saying that they MIGHT have located them. I had to verify my signature.
Today (quite a few months later - I'd guess it's at the very least 5 months) I recieved my certificate - and it turns out that there's £45 worth of them.

Better still having just checked the NS&I site it appears that I won £50 in the October draw - nice one!!

However - I hope someone here can help me with this - the NS&I site only checks the past 6 months. How do I know whether or not I have won anything else over the past 10 years??!!
And also the NS&I site isnt very clear on how I get hold of the £50 I won - maybe they'll send that to me soon?

Either way....thanks very much to this site for helping me to relocate them. I'm (at least) £95 better off.

My understanding is, so long as you can prove you are the bond holder, they will keep all your winnings, (even from decades ago) and send them on.

A friend of mine had an old paper one for £1.00 bought in the 70's I think. She photocopied it, wrote a letter and gave details of her previous addresses and a few weeks later a lovely cheque arrived for just over £1000. I am not sure how much she won, or when she won it, or whether it was a smaller amount plus interest.

She used the money to pay for her daughters braces as there was an 18 month waiting list!

Excellent result

[kahwilts]

I have just filled out the Find my lost account form.

I did one for me and one for my son.

As a child I remember having a passbook for Bradford and Bingley and Abbey National. I also had a Post Office Savings account and when I was in Junior School Yorkshire Bank used to come and collect 50p per week from loads of the school kids.

I don't remember closing any of these accounts, except perhaps the post office one- but still I am not sure.

I know that if there was any money in these accounts it would have only been about £5.00 per account. However with a tiny bit of interest this soon adds up. Even if I got the balance of each account back it would be perhaps £20.00. That will be going straight into my overpayment account for my mortgage.

The other form which I filled in was on behalf of my DS-15yrs.

My late paternal grandmother opened an account for him in about 1994 with the Northern Rock BS as it was then. I know initially that there was £50 in it.

However she passed away in 2003/04? and this account should have been closed (shouldn't it) and the money passed to my son?

The executor of the will was my uncle and I didn't see any financial matters, not that I would want to, but as she was the official trustee and I was a little more niave about my rights, or the rights of my son for that matter, I didn't know what to do.

Hopefully, the findmyaccount will enable us to reclaim this, but I know that I will not be able to get the death cert within any time soon and I know that I will have a lot of questions to answer as to why I want it.

Any suggestions please

Thanks

[justinking]

Hello, so am i to understand that I enter old account details to my lostaccount.com and wait to hear from them? If so then I have already done this and I am still waiting to hear from these people about old accounts. About 3 of them - one my late mother's Nat West account and two lloyds bank ones. I have waited for e mails for about 4-6 weeks (possibly longer) and I have not heard anything.

Do i need to go through this process again? Im just wondering whether I am doing something wrong.

Help!

Justin

[dc110]

Took it into day, apparently in 36yrs the interest accrued is £4.05p.

I took the £6.50, what else could I do!

I must admit, I didn't know what to expect, but I left with the impression that, they didn't know what to do, and some manager said offer 5% per year and see if he will accept it.

Think it might be about right. If my calculations are correct £2.45 for 36 years at 3% would be worth £7.10

No idea of historic interest rates but seems 3% seems a reasonable estimate

[Lyndahayes]

Wow! I forgot all about an account I once had at Nationwide... I went to the lost account form and I just heard I have nearly £50 waiting for me! I totally forgot about it since I last used the account in 1992! I will go and get it next week!

I have saved literally thousands and have been helped to claim back so many things because of this website. If it hadn't been for the moneysavingexpert website and everyone here, I would have gone bankrupt years ago. Truly! Thanks everyone x x x

[Lyndahayes]

Originally Posted by justinking

Hello, so am i to understand that I enter old account details to my lostaccount.com and wait to hear from them? If so then I have already done this and I am still waiting to hear from these people about old accounts. About 3 of them - one my late mother's Nat West account and two lloyds bank ones. I have waited for e mails for about 4-6 weeks (possibly longer) and I have not heard anything.

Do i need to go through this process again? Im just wondering whether I am doing something wrong.

Help!

Justin

It took the 3 banks I contacted about 6 months to answer me. But I finally got a result today! Nice! Guess you will have to wait a long time, but if there is anything there, it will come to you. I was losing faith and forgot all about it and now all is well! x x x

[hotsnowflake]

I still have copies of the only three statements I ever received from the Midland bank when I opened a Number one account in 1989 with a £1
Six months later the statement was £1.06
and then for some reason they changed to a yearly statement and the amount was £1.10.
So although I hadn't had any other correspondence since then I knew I had a dormant account with them when I found the article about reclaiming through mylostaccount.

July 2008 completed form
October 2008 told my account had been found and I would hear in a month.
July 2009 remembered and chased it up with the BBA
August 2009 recieved a letter confirming an account was with the HSBC and to go to a branch with ID. (All they did was photocopy it)
Two weeks ago got another letter to contact them - they had lost the account and wanted the details again.

After a very frustrating, long time a cheque has finally arrived today for £1.13!!
Obviously I'm a tad disappointed after all that effort - I had opened the account in 1989 and in 20 years I had earned only 3p in interest! I was never sure from the article on MSE if you were still paid interest on a dormant account and knew it still wouldn't be much but I kinda hoped anyway!?!
Shame but I suppose every penny counts...

[malik999]

Originally Posted by justinking

Hello, so am i to understand that I enter old account details to my lostaccount.com and wait to hear from them? If so then I have already done this and I am still waiting to hear from these people about old accounts. About 3 of them - one my late mother's Nat West account and two lloyds bank ones. I have waited for e mails for about 4-6 weeks (possibly longer) and I have not heard anything.

Do i need to go through this process again? Im just wondering whether I am doing something wrong.

Help!

Justin

For anyone looking for this the domain is: mylostaccount.org.uk not lostaccount.com

[ctyrrell]

When i turned 18 last december i received a lump sum from a trust fund my grand-parents had invested into with LV - i was expecting around £3k but due to the credit crunch and the drop in the savings rate i lost over £1k, does anyone know if and how i can claim this back ?

any help would be much appreciated