Accessing dormanted bank accounts 25 February at 9:40PM in Budgeting & Bank Accounts 3 replies 161 views

Lady_Pink

Hi,
A family member of mine hasn't been managing his finances properly for a number of years due to ill health. This has only just been discovered so we're trying to help him untangle the mess. One account, with a not insubstantial amount in, had been dormanted a while ago. He's been supported to send off documentation and ID, but I was wondering if anyone knew how long it's likely to take for him to be able to access the money?  Not been able to find anything much online so anyone with personal experience would be v v helpful. 
TIA

Lady P

jonesMUFCforever

Has he been asked to take ID documents to a branch?
Some banks will be able to take off the dormancy indicator there and then if they are satisfied with the ID - others might have to take copies and send on to a specialist department within the bank.

Lady_Pink

He was asked to take ID to branch to have it validated, then to send the validated copy off (can't remember exactly where that was to! ). The account was held with a bank that was taken over by Lloyd's a while ago, so not sure if that makes it more complicated. It's not been touched for well over 15 years,  so I'm assuming they'll have to get it back from Reclaim Fund Limited. No idea how long that process takes. There's quite a lot of his stuff to sort so even a ball park idea would be helpful - this comes on top of a recent family bereavement so a lot of stress and upset all round 😕

born_again

OP. I think that you really would need to ask the bank concerned what their process & timescales are. As it could vary from bank to bank.