Birmingham Midshires Dormant account now with LBG

Tri2012

as POA to MIl  have found a letter broom Bham Midshires from June2010 for a bond with a very substantial balance that MIL and family are aware of and no other paperwork found.

Registered with  Mylost account and within 24 hrs has a Not Found reply.  In the comment I have advised the account details, exact letter wording and amount of  the funds,  we have the paperwork and can give an OPG V code.

Appears LBG have not read comments or made effort to search for MIL - having worked in banking I’m aware of ‘light’ searches are done to get through the work.

Have contracted MyLostAccount by email as well including a copy of the paperwork.

Are there any other suggestions apart from the  FO? It would be heartbreaking to loose a significant amount of care funding for MIL.

Aware its just past 15years - and also aware records go back further!

Thanks 

wmb194

Tri2012 said:

as POA to MIl  have found a letter broom Bham Midshires from June2010 for a bond with a very substantial balance that MIL and family are aware of and no other paperwork found.

Registered with  Mylost account and within 24 hrs has a Not Found reply.  In the comment I have advised the account details, exact letter wording and amount of  the funds,  we have the paperwork and can give an OPG V code.

Appears LBG have not read comments or made effort to search for MIL - having worked in banking I’m aware of ‘light’ searches are done to get through the work.

Have contracted MyLostAccount by email as well including a copy of the paperwork.

Are there any other suggestions apart from the  FO? It would be heartbreaking to loose a significant amount of care funding for MIL.

Aware its just past 15years - and also aware records go back further!

Thanks 

Which savings bond was it? IIRC the longest BM ever offered was for five years so chances are it matured in June 2015 and the deposit was transferred elsewhere.

When you go past six years and they cannot find anything it's usually because the account was closed. Do you have statements for her main account in June 2015? Could it have been transferred there?

Checking my records, I had a four year bond opened in 2010 with a maturity note in 2014 stating that I'd posted maturity instructions to BM three weeks prior to the end of the term and the same for a five year bond in 2016.

I don't remember what the default position on no instructions but it would probably have been conversion or transfer into a easy access account with BM.

DRS1

I looked at an old maturity letter for a BM bond I had and if you did nothing the money "will be moved to a Birmingham Midshires Matured Funds Account" paying a variable rate of 0.05%.  With that sort of choice wouldn't she have moved the money or put it in a new bond maybe with someone else?  I know I did.

Another thing from the Ts&Cs says if you have not used an account for 15 years and they have lost touch with you they can transfer the money to "the reclaim fund" which uses it for "the benefit of the community" - you can still get it back from the reclaim fund if that is where it ended up.

Tri2012

Thanks it’s definitely a  2 year Fixed Bond maturing 31/5/2010 and letter advises would be transferred to a postal account and the issue number - LBG say no record.  Best part, letter was sent after the bond matured.

Given the amount on the letter Ii thinks it rolled over more than once as well.

just hope MyLostAccount come through other its the FO

You’ll be pleased to hear that your Birmingham Midshires Fixed Rate Bond matures on 31 May 2010. This means you'll

Xxxxxxxxxxx plus  final interest)* available to re-invest for your future.

Yes 15 years and it transferred elsewhere, partly the reason LBG may not want to search as part of a BS they took over.

wmb194

Tri2012 said:

Thanks it’s definitely a  2 year Fixed Bond maturing 31/5/2010 and letter advises would be transferred to a postal account and the issue number - LBG say no record.  Best part, letter was sent after the bond matured.

Given the amount on the letter Ii thinks it rolled over more than once as well.

just hope MyLostAccount come through other its the FO

You’ll be pleased to hear that your Birmingham Midshires Fixed Rate Bond matures on 31 May 2010. This means you'll

Xxxxxxxxxxx plus  final interest)* available to re-invest for your future.

Yes 15 years and it transferred elsewhere, partly the reason LBG may not want to search as part of a BS they took over.

What makes you think the money remained there, though? People have terrible memories and their financial record keeping tends to be poor - they keep letters and certificates that should have been thrown away; can you check your MIL's main bank account's statements in 2010?

What do you mean by, "rolled over more than once"? Wasn't the maturity postal account an instant access account?

Tri2012

The balance is an odd amount ending 98 pence  rather than a round number.  MIL paperwork is a complete mess (a house full of clutter) and given her age confused for the day of the week but can tell you where she evacuated in the war II but in between is sketchy.   

Doesn’t help found another piece of paperwork of someone confirming receipt of a different  substantial amount which doesn’t tie up with paperwork and dates the  FA  has given details of and that’s another email….

we are going to try with Bank - sadly there is very little POA can actually do online and its all appointments in branch, with no staff and those who are there have no idea about POA or the products their bank provide.-lol 

i do have such empathy for the elderly who mainly have no photo ID, internet, tech skills, some have no one to help them.

Hoenir

Old paperwork leads people down rabbit holes. Particularly letters. Unless you find more substantative evidence. The likelihood of money lying around untouched is remote. 15 years ago your MIL was perfectly capable of managing her own financial affairs. 

DRS1

Tri2012 said:

Thanks it’s definitely a  2 year Fixed Bond maturing 31/5/2010 and letter advises would be transferred to a postal account and the issue number - LBG say no record.  Best part, letter was sent after the bond matured.

Given the amount on the letter Ii thinks it rolled over more than once as well.

just hope MyLostAccount come through other its the FO

You’ll be pleased to hear that your Birmingham Midshires Fixed Rate Bond matures on 31 May 2010. This means you'll

Xxxxxxxxxxx plus  final interest)* available to re-invest for your future.

Yes 15 years and it transferred elsewhere, partly the reason LBG may not want to search as part of a BS they took over.

So you don't have a letter saying Thank you for your instructions regarding your maturing BM account?  I would have thought she would have kept that because the second paragraph in bold says "Please keep this letter safe"

It is odd that the letter you found was dated after maturity.  The Let us know what's next letters I have are mostly the month before maturity (eg July for a bond maturing at the end of August).  So maybe the letter you have is one sent out when she did not respond to the first letter.  So she easily could have ended up in the maturity account - not sure if she would have kept the same account number.  But wouldn't she still have been earning interest?  And BM used to send out annual statements showing that interest - worth looking for them perhaps?  If she doesn't have any then maybe that suggests she moved the money somewhere else.

Or maybe she moved house at some point and didn't tell BM?

Olenna

LBG never took over BM. It was taken over by Halifax which was subsequently merged into Bank of Scotland. It will long ago have been sent to that community reclaim fund if it's not already withdrawn - which seems fairly likely given the amount. 

Swipe

To be fair to Birmingham Midshires, they were pretty thorough when it came to closing their accounts. They even chased me when I failed to deposit a cheque they'd sent me for £1 and something pence because my banking app refused to accept it when scanned.

Eco_Miser

Olenna said:

LBG never took over BM. It was taken over by Halifax which was subsequently merged into Bank of Scotland. It will long ago have been sent to that community reclaim fund if it's not already withdrawn - which seems fairly likely given the amount. 

And then LBG took over HBOS, meaning that BM ended up with LBG. BM is covered under the Bank of Scotland banking licence, rather than the Lloyds Bank one, but they are all part of LBG.