‘Dormant’ accounts empty

Mrs R.C. writes: My husband died in May and I am sorting out his affairs. He had an account with Barclays that he had not used for years. I know there was money in it, but we moved address. YOU and your husband approached Barclays a few years ago, but received a rather ambiguous reply saying his accounts had been closed ‘due to dormancy’. This suggested there was money in his accounts, and you were invited to prove your identity and claim it.

But when you tried to do this, Barclays said it could not trace any such dormant account.

You gave me a copy of an old, unused cheque, showing your husband had at least one account – though of course it was not evidence there was any money left in it. I am afraid this is exactly how things have turned out.

After a lot of digging in old records, for which I have thanked the bank’s staff, they found evidence of two accounts.

One was closed in May 1995, and the only surviving record for the other shows it was closed before March 1994.