Lost account..... Woolwich

[GASS]

Hi all

 

Something a little different.

I found a site that will help you claim back any money left in "lost Accounts", i.e. accounts that you have forgotten about and done nothing with you a while.

 

Any way the account I had was with a building society called Gateway and I had a total of £7.00 left in it back in 1987.

 

I contacted the website and filled in the appropriate information and was told that I would be contacted in approx 12 weeks. Well I received an email at the beginning of this week and was advised that they cannot find the account and that the Gateway were now part of Woolwich who are now owned by Barclays. I was advised to write a complaint to them about the"lost account" which I have done.

 

I understand that banks/building societies are obliged to keep records of "lost accounts" and that claimants are allowed to claim the amount back plus the interest.

 

I have proof of the account as I still hold the passbook....

 

So just getting prepared, how do I go about calculating the interest from that long ago, any ideas would be great.

 

Ta..

Gass

[rebel11]

http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/48-bank-templates/118-interest-calculation-spreadsheets

[slick132]

Hi GASS,

 

Whilst the banks may have a duty to keep records on old a/c's, I'm not sure they have a duty to pay a specific rate of interest.

 

My understanding is just the opposite - they will pay a very low nominal rate on a deposit a/c, or no interest at all on a current that's been left dormant.

 

Don't book the Bahamas holiday yet !!

 

[GASS]

Flip - bikini packed ! Agree £7.00 in the account won't get much, but in this climate every penny counts !

 

I am struggling to get any information out of Woolwich (Barclays) about the account, they say no records and I must have withdrawn the remaining amount.

 

I still have the passbook and if I had drawn out the remaining amount would the balance now be shown as £0.

[slick132]

Hi Gass,

 

There are several ways in which the balance could have been withdrawn or transferred to close the a/c, without necessarily using the passbook.

 

However, if you have the passbook and make copies of it available to Barclays, they should be able to supply you with a definitive answer about what happened to the balance.

 

[Sunseeker2011]

Interesting thought GASS. I have a similar situation with an old Abbey account that I have left dormant for years. The company stopped sending me monthly reports and I have just £10 left in the account. I may look into this when I have a spare minute.

[slick132]

Hi Sunseeker and welcome to CAG.

 

Please feel free to start your own thread about your case, in the appropriate forum.

 

[Airwolf]

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/9/sept-re-discovered-old-passbooks.htm

 

"A dormant account is one that is not being used, and where the firm has lost touch with the customer. After an account becomes dormant, it is transferred to a separate register of dormant accounts (there may be individual ones for each branch). It is recorded under the name of the account holder and, after a time, the account number may be re-used for someone else’s active account.

 

A dormant account remains indefinitely in the register of dormant accounts – until the customer gets in touch with the bank to claim the money. The bank cannot claim the money for itself after a lapse of time.

The law does not require businesses to keep records indefinitely, and it is unlikely that the bank will have retained any other paperwork from the relevant period. So we are unlikely to find any concrete evidence concerning the closure of the account. And the law does not require banks to pay up just because it cannot produce evidence showing how and when the account was closed.

 

We have to decide what is most likely to have happened, in the light of the available evidence. And we often conclude that the most likely explanation is that the account was closed many years ago – in circumstances that the customer has long since forgotten."