Forgotten bank account: how to find and reclaim dormant money

An old bank account you have forgotten, or a late relative's savings, do not simply vanish. The UK has a system that lets you find and reclaim such money for free — and your right to reclaim it survives even if the account has long been classed as dormant.

When is an account "dormant"?

Under the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008 (section 10), an account is dormant if it has been open for 15 years and no transactions were carried out on it by the account holder during that period. A building society is a mutual, bank-like savings institution.

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How do you find a lost account?

The main free tool is My Lost Account (mylostaccount.org.uk). It helps trace forgotten accounts with banks, building societies and NS&I (National Savings and Investments). The process is:

• you create a profile and complete a search form;
• your application goes to the provider you choose;
• when a result is ready, you get a letter or email alert.

The service states plainly that there is no need to pay a fee to find your old accounts. Beware firms that offer to "recover your money" for a cut — the official check is free.

The money has gone to a fund — can you still get it back?

Yes. If a provider cannot find the owner of a dormant account (it must try first, via post, phone or a credit reference agency), the money can be transferred to Reclaim Fund Ltd (RFL). RFL keeps enough to cover reclaims and passes the surplus to social and environmental projects through the National Lottery Community Fund.

The key point: you keep a legal right to reclaim exactly what you would have been owed had the money not been transferred, and you can do so at any time. The scheme was expanded by the Dormant Assets Act 2022.

How do you reclaim it?

For bank and building society accounts, contact the firm that held the funds directly, or trace the account through My Lost Account. You will need proof of identity, and, for an inheritance, documents proving your right to the estate (in England and Wales, a grant of probate).

What to prepare for a search

The more detail you give, the better your chance of a match. It helps to gather in advance:

• the account holder's full name and any former names (for example, a maiden name);
• the addresses you lived at while the account was open — providers search on old addresses;
• any details you know: the bank's name, an account number, old statements or a passbook;
• for a deceased relative's accounts, the death certificate and probate documents.

My Lost Account lets you search banks, building societies and NS&I separately, including tracing forgotten Premium Bonds. The search is free on each of these routes.

The bottom line

An account with no activity for 15 years becomes dormant but does not disappear. You can trace it free through My Lost Account, and the right to reclaim lasts forever — even after transfer to the Reclaim Fund. Check your own and your relatives' old accounts: hundreds of millions of pounds sit unclaimed in the UK.