Reclaim money that you’ve forgotten about
It’s easy to fall behind with life admin, but this can result in losing track of your finances, too. So much so, that at least three in 10 people* think they’ve lost money by holding it in a dormant account or by simply forgetting about it. It’s estimated that over £50 billion sits in ‘lost’ accounts. Could some of it be yours?
PREMIUM BONDS
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) premium bonds are hugely popular, but millions of prizes go unclaimed, at least five of them worth £100,000. Many people lose track of their bonds, often when they move home and don’t tell NS&I. If you have your holder’s number, you can find out if you’ve won at nsandi.com/prize-checker. Otherwise, write to NS&I, Sunderland SR43 2SB, providing them with as many details as possible: previous addresses, where you bought the bonds and how much you think they’re worth. It is a good idea to have your winnings paid into your bank account or automatically reinvested and also to set up an online account to manage the bonds in future.
CHILD TRUST FUNDS
If you had a child born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011, then you’ll have a Child Trust Fund. These children were given £250 (£500 for low income families) to invest for their future and, if parents took no action, HMRC opened an account for them. You can track down your account at gov.uk/child-trust-fund. Or, if you have the paperwork, then get in touch with the provider to consider your options with the fund. Around £1.7 billion is sitting in unclaimed CTFS, so make sure your child does not miss out.
BANK & SAVINGS ACCOUNTS
If you’ve lost track of a current or savings account, use My Lost Account, mylostaccount.org.uk, for free. The service brings together UK Finance, the Building Societies Association and NS&I tracing services into a one-stop shop covering 30 banks, 43 UK building societies and NS&I products.
PENSIONS
Lost or forgotten pensions are common as people change jobs or move home. If you’ve lost the details of your provider, contact a past employer asking for them so you can write to the scheme. If you know the provider’s name, call or write to update your details and get your latest statement. You can also try searching on gov.uk/find-pensioncontact-details or use the Pension Tracing
Service, pensiontracingservice.com, for free.
INVESTMENTS
You may have lost track of stocks and shares investments if the company managing them stopped trading or merged. To locate them and get a replacement share certificate, you can apply to a company registrar such as Capita, Computershare and Equiniti, but there will be a fee. You can also use the Investment Association’s Unclaimed Assets Portal, theia.org/unclaimedasset, to track down other investments such as funds.