ING rushing to make accounts dormant

Primrose

Letter just received from ING. "Our records show you have not accessed your account for 2 years 9 months....If you have not accessed/transacted on your accounts for 3 years, your account will become dormant.......To stop your account from becoming dormant, simply log on to your account online at ingdirect.co.uk.......or phone 0845 603 8888

I thought accounts were normally allowed to run for about 7 years without activity before banks started to make them dormant? Anybody else experienced this somewhat hasty actvity with other accounts/institutions they don't ofter use or access?

Baldur

ICICI Bank make their current accounts dormant after >18 months of inactivity.

glider3560

Perhaps their definition of dormant is simply suspending access to online services (maybe for security) rather than making the account dormant in the real sense?

Baldur

glider3560 wrote: »

Perhaps their definition of dormant is simply suspending access to online services (maybe for security) rather than making the account dormant in the real sense?

See http://www.ingdirect.co.uk/home/tandc/vrsa_nov09.pdf

21 Dormant accounts
21.1 If you, or anyone who you hold a joint savings account with, do not use your PIN and other security details to access any of your savings accounts with us for three years, we may restrict access to all of the savings accounts you hold with us. However, you will be able to ask us to remove the restrictions by contacting us at any time.
21.2 If there have been no payments into or out of your account for 15 or more years (or any other period specified by law) then we may transfer the money in your account to a ‘reclaim fund’.
A reclaim fund is a separate organisation authorised to accept unclaimed money in ‘dormant’ bank accounts. You will be entitled to claim your money and any interest payable on it back from the reclaim fund and we will provide you with information to help you to do so.
21.3 Please ask us if you would like more information on dormant accounts.

Primrose

I've now logged in to reactivate the account. However as we have a couple of savings accounts which have hardly any money in them because their interest rates are so low that we moved the majority of the money elsewhere, I've now made bring-forward reminder in my computer diary to review them once a year and pay in a couple of pounds to keep them active.

fullstop

Primrose wrote: »

I've now logged in to reactivate the account. However as we have a couple of savings accounts which have hardly any money in them because their interest rates are so low that we moved the majority of the money elsewhere, I've now made bring-forward reminder in my computer diary to review them once a year and pay in a couple of pounds to keep them active.

I would close the account as ING has a habit of offering better rates to new customers. You could then apply for a new account offering better rates, if and when they become available.

dougz_2

I have been offered better rates for just leaving my account open but empty in the past. I also got sent bunches of £25 RAF vouchers. However I have not had either of these perks for some time.

geepster

fullstop wrote: »

I would close the account as ING has a habit of offering better rates to new customers. You could then apply for a new account offering better rates, if and when they become available.

Here here:beer:

thor

I have £1 in my ING account. It was left there for nuisance value due to their underhand tactics. I might leave it there to become dormant and then reclaim it later to rack up their admin costs.

MaxHeadroom_2

I closed my ING A/c's due to the poor interest rates. Had a moan about new customers getting better interest rates and was told my remarks would be passed on, who too I don't know.

I was also told that if I opened a new A/c within 12 months of closing my A/c's, I would not be classed as a new customer and would therefore not receive the rates given to new customers.

Baldur

MaxHeadroom wrote: »

I was also told that if I opened a new A/c within 12 months of closing my A/c's, I would not be classed as a new customer and would therefore not receive the rates given to new customers.

If so, that's a recent change. I opened an account at their 3.2% 'new customer' rate in October and had only closed all of my accounts a few weeks previously.