Forgotten about money ‘can be reclaimed’

People who with lost or forgotten about funds should reclaim them by contacting their bank, an industry expert has said.

According to Jason Clarke, a spokesperson for Halifax, many people have money they have forgotten about or lost the details of when changing address, for example.

However, he advised that reclaiming the money is simple, as account holders can simply notify their bank of any changes to their personal details and they will be giving help in locating their money.

“Loss happens for a lot of different reasons. The majority of these accounts will have very little money in them – the overwhelming majority will have small amounts, £100 or less,” said Mr Clarke.

He added that occasionally the amount of lost money is “sizeable”, but that there is usually a “good reason” for this such as the death of someone with no will, or in some cases no surviving family.

The British Bankers’ Association states that, this year, the number of people looking on their dormant account search pages has risen to around a quarter of a million, with 20,000 consumers having made claims.

Tags: account holders, Banks and Institutions, Forgotten, family, address, money loss

Brits hide billions in the home

Millions of Brits are storing billions of pounds in their homes and missing out on the benefits of banking.

That is according to Virgin Money, which says we have a combined £3.5 billion worth of cash stashed away.

The firm has labelled it the ‘biscuit tin bank’ and says that we should all take that money and put it into a bank account as quickly as possible.

With the money just sitting in our homes, Virgin points out that we are missing out on interest which would be earned if it was in a bank account.

The £3.5 billion would earn a combined total of £174 million in interest every year if it was in an account and, based on future interest rates, our cash is set to lose £200 million in spending power by 2010.

Virgin discovered that 15 per cent of Brits have up to £1,000 in their home, while two per cent have around £5,000.

It may seem crazy to keep this amount of cash in the house but apparently we have our reasons.

Despite the massive risks associated, such as theft, six per cent say they keep the money in the house to hide it from their partner, four per cent do not trust banks and one per cent want to keep it tax-free.

Tags: Banks and Institutions, total, Virgin, trust banks, The

Double money for lucky bankers

A number of bank customers in Cambridgeshire were given quite a surprise when a cash machine began paying out double money.

Customers, who were merely doing their daily banking, were both surprised and delighted when they realised that they were being given twice the amount of cash that they were asking for.

Word soon spread and a huge queue formed outside the cash point, with everyone wanting to get a piece of the action.

The machine only handed out the wrong money for one hour and it is unclear how much was taken, but it is clear that the bank lost a substantial amount of money.

The error was down to a mistake made by one of the bank workers, who filled the £10-note dispenser with £20-notes.

Those who were lucky enough to get their hands on some free cash then got another surprise when the bank released a statement saying that they are allowed to keep the money.

“It was strange keying in an amount and finding you got double what you asked for,” one lucky banker told the Cambs Times.

“I’m amazed the bank has told me I can now keep the extra cash – there will be dozens of people celebrating their good fortune.”

Tags: Banking, Banks and Institutions, dozens, dispenser, bank workers