Dormant account closure

Beccalah

Hi all,

I have recently found my childhood Abbey National savings account through the website mylostaccount.
Although delighted that it was found, it has a grand total of just over 12 GBP.
Obviously not a lot of cash, and as I now live abroad, it will cost me far more than 12 quid to make the transfer into my current account, so not worth much to me.

My question is this, and before I ask the bank (now Santander) would the bank make this amount available to a charity of my choice and would they provide details to me that the transfer took place?
I would rather this money went to a charity rather than the government...

Grateful for any advice!

Vortigern

I closed a NatWest account containing one penny. I suggested they might donate the penny to a charity of their choosing. They said they couldn't do that and sent me a cheque for 1p by post!

eskbanker

Beccalah wrote: »

I would rather this money went to a charity rather than the government...

Sounds unlikely that they'd pay to a charity of your choosing and then prove it to you (but no harm in asking), but at https://www.santander.co.uk/uk/savings/savings-faqs they say:

Unclaimed Assets Scheme
We participate in the unclaimed assets scheme established under the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008. The purpose of the scheme is to enable money in dormant accounts (i.e. balances in accounts that have been inactive or dormant for 15 years or more) to be distributed for the benefit of the community while protecting the rights of customers to reclaim their money.
Under the scheme, we may transfer balances of dormant accounts to Reclaim Fund Ltd (RFL). RFL is a not for profit reclaim fund which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

If we transfer the balance of your account to RFL, you will have against RFL whatever right to payment of your balance you would have had against us if the transfer had never happened. However, we will remain responsible for managing all aspects of the customer relationship with you and for handling all repayment claims (which we will do on behalf of RFL). Therefore, you should continue to contact us in the usual way if you have any queries or complaints in relation to your account or balance.

Both we and RFL participate in the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The transfer by us to RFL of your balance will not adversely affect any entitlement you have to compensation from the FSCS.

https://www.reclaimfund.co.uk/about-us/ confirms that it's a not-for-profit organisation (not sure why it's .co.uk rather than .org.uk though) routing money to 'good causes' but you don't get to choose which ones....