Money from an old account?

[MarcMaronF]

Hi,

Not sure this is the best place but I can't see anywhere more suitable, so apologies if this should be elsewhere.

I was wondering if anyone would have any information about how to access money from an old account?

There has been an unexpected death in the family & upon clearing the home a bank book has been found in my DH name.

It appears to be a savings account sort of thing; it was began before he was born, and dates on the book stop just before his birth but there is quite a large amount listed in the lodgements section.

We are quite sure it is for him as there is no one else in the family of his name & he was very close to his uncle (who passed away)

I'm just not sure what to do with it? At the moment, no further documentation has been found & no info regarding a will.

Funeral expenses etc have all been covered and we are at the stage of closing up the house.

I hope this makes sense & I haven't rambled too much!

Just get in touch with the bank and ask if the account still exists and if so, whether there is money in it. They will tell you what to do next.

How was his name on it if it was started before he was born, though?

Thank you. I plan to ring tomorrow, just wondered if anyone had any experience of this kind of thing

Imperial, I don't really know. It has us a bit confused! His mother was very closely monitored during her pregnancy so I'm assuming that they knew he would be a boy & had a name picked before his birth?

Things were more slack in those days, perhaps. Now you couldn't open a bank account without proof of ID but maybe it was different then.

As said above you need to contact the bank, they may need to send it off as it's an old book and may not be on their computerised system. The funds may have been transferred to the banks 'unclaimed balances account'. If so it should all be documented and they will locate the funds and calculate the interest.

There is also the possibility that the original passbook for the account was mislaid (and found by you) and it was replaced by the bank. The funds could have been withdrawn years ago. So just in case that did happen I wouldn't get too excited just yet.

Good luck, it would be great to have a little windfall.

Www.mylostaccount.org
Is the name of the bank or building society one that still trades?

Www.mylostaccount.org.UK

When was the last payment into the account?

Unless you dh is in his early twenties I doubt they would have known he was going to be a boy.

There would have had to have been an amnio to know that.

Also, why would anyone forget a bank account for a child?

OP, you HAVE to come back and tell us what happened!

Sorry guys, I'm in work now. Nightshift! I will be back asap to answer questions as best I can.

Thanks!

Thanks for all the responses. DH & I are not getting excited, it's probably going to turn out to be nothing, but has us bamboozled all the same!

Yes the bank is still trading, one in the town nearest to me, however neither DH uncle or his aunt who passed about 20 years ago held accounts with this bank. At least not as their usual/everday accounts. That's according to DH. No way to know really about their own private finances.

Last payment into the account was a few weeks before DH was born, he is in his early 30's.

DH mother had him very late in life, she had also lost a child before him so was really very closely monitored even then.

Not sure if the account was forgotten, as a PP said it has probably been a lost book, replaced by the bank & found by us. Never thought of that.

I'll be ringing the bank for some more information when I get up tomorrow & will update then.

I hope you get to some good news tomorrow.

Could dh's uncle also have had a child of the same name that something happened to before your dh was born? And he was named in memory of this child? Circumstances like that I could imagine just not caring about the money anymore.

Thanks Lunar.

Well I suppose it is possible, tres, but as far as we are aware that isn't the case.
DH mother is still with us, so I'm sure she would have said. The aunt & uncle had no children.

The more I think on it, the less expectations I have but will still try the bank.

Well I rang the bank, didn't really get anywhere.
They took the account number and said it didn't match an account on the computer, but asked me to bring the book in with DH & his ID.
Will do this later in the week.
She did seem to think it was possible for an account to be started for him before his birth though.
So we're still as confused as ever!

Interesting please update when you get to the bottom of it.

SoonToBeSix - still no answer really!

Sorry for the delay in updating.

Went to the bank with DH/ID/Bank book, the only accounts that matched the account number were in Brazil & the R.O.I!

I very much doubt they are linked to this account in DH name, although why it's the same account number I don't know?

The bank were unable to say anything more than this as we cannot prove the money was intended for DH (or even that it still exists)

Unless we can find anymore paperwork with information that links to DH we are stuck.

Still a mystery it seems!