Hidden treasures lie unclaimed

With around £15 billion or so lying around going to waste in dormant accounts, many financial organisations have started campaigns to reunite customers with their cash before it gets reinvested in society by the government. Halifax recently started a campaign to remind customers about their forgotten accounts. In some cases where the amount is more than £1,000, Halifax is employing search agents, at its own expense, to find the owners. It said it has £44 million held in 110,000 old and unused savings and bank accounts and some of it could be yours.

The scale of the 'problem'

While it sounds like a lot of loot, it represents only 0.03% of the £133 billion held in bank and savings accounts by HBOS Group, which includes Halifax and Bank of Scotland. And around 75% of these forgotten accounts hold less than £100. But, while hardly a fortune, it's certainly worth having. If you think you may have a lost a Halifax account you can go to a Halifax or Bank of Scotland branch and complete a claim form or visit its new website www.halifaxlocateaccounts.co.uk to find out more. To jog your memory Halifax has been writing to dormant account holders and running ads in the national and regional newspapers. The bank has found that Londoners seem to be the most forgetful about their money and around a quarter of the dormant accounts valued at £15.5 million are held by them. A further 18% are in the North of England.

Where is all the money?

That explains £44 million but what about the remaining £14.5 billion? The Unclaimed Assets Register run by Experian reckons that there is £1,000 million in unclaimed life assurance policies, £3,000 million in pensions, £3,000 million in share and dividends; £8,000 million in dormant accounts and National Savings & Investments (NS&I); and another £300 million in lost lottery funds. This makes a grand total of £15.3 billion and its just an estimate there could be even more hidden away.

Last year NS&I alone said that it is holding £1.8 billion in unclaimed savings accounts and prize money for premiums bonds. Around £730 million of this is languishing in matured savings certificates, £26 million is wasting away in unclaimed Premium Bond prize money, with the largest single sum being £25,000, and £140 million is lying in forgotten premium bonds. Experian calculates that there is around £2.8 billion in dormant bank and building society account belonging to people who are still alive.

13 April 2007 © Moneyextra.com

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Our senior editor Robin Amlôt recommends you should consider taking independent financial advice before acting on any article. Please contact us for help with your individual circumstances if any assistance is required.