Cash point
If you’re feeling a bit skint after the festive overspend, check if you’re due some unclaimed cash.
Up to £77billion could be sitting in forgotten pensions, bank accounts and other financial products.
Carl Drummond, senior wealth planner at investment firm Sanlam UK, says there are seven key places to look.
1. Pensions More than
£5bn is languishing in forgotten pots. Try the free Pension Tracing
Service, www.gov.uk/findpension-contact-details.
2. Bank and building society accounts The Money Advice Service says there’s £850m sitting in unclaimed British accounts. Use the free service at mylostaccount.org.uk.
3. Premium bonds National Savings & Investments says there’s 1.5 million unclaimed prizes worth over £60m. Check My Lost Account to see if you hold any Premium Bonds and nsandi. com to check for prize numbers.
4. Insurance policies Life insurance policies can be easily forgotten. Unclaimed Assets UK, which helps people to trace lost money, estimates there’s £2bn worth of unclaimed life insurance. Check if a deceased person had life insurance via old bank statements.
5. Lottery wins Find out if you’re owed part of the £12m in unclaimed prizes at national-lottery.co.uk.
6. Child Trust Funds Check if your child is due a share of the £1bn in old CTFs via gov.uk.
Check if you hold shares via one of the company registrars, Capita, Computershare and Equiniti, for free.