A WOMAN who opened a bank account when she was six-years-old has tracked it down decades later – and discovered it’s worth hundreds of pounds.
Carol Allison from Edinburgh deposited a shilling a week into her savings for a year when she was a child with her grandmother’s help.
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She paid the cash into an account with Trustee Savings Bank, which later became TSB, and as a shilling is the equivalent of five pence, saved £2.50 in total.
She forgo all about it and now aged 74, she stumbled across the bank book detailing her deposits when having a clear out recently, the BBC reports, along with details of two other accounts.
After going to the bank, she found that she could still access the money and after more than 60 years it is now worth £250.
She told BBC Scotland: “I was really pleased and thanked my grandmother, under my breath, when they told me I had £250.
“They said it had continued to gain interest all that time. I’m now going to see how much has accrued in the other two now, it’s very exciting.”
Carol, who had four kids of her own since opening the bank account, is now urging others to check if they have unclaimed cash in “lost” accounts.
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Brits could be missing out on millions of pounds from lost bank accounts as well as Premium Bonds, pensions and investments.
Current accounts and savings accounts that haven’t been touched in 15 years can be raided with the money going to good causes.
And a change to the rules on dormant assets means this will soon apply to insurance, pensions and other investments too.
Carol was able to get the cash back under the scheme, as you can still apply for it after the 15 years has passed.
Tracking down what you’re owed could be easier than you think.
You should beware using a firm that will charge you for such a service as it’s mostly free to do it yourself.
Are you sitting on a lost pot of cash waiting to be discovered? Here’s how you can track down old accounts…
How to track down lost accounts
If you can remember your bank or building society, contact them directly in the first instance.
You can use the free Policydetective.co.uk site to check if the company has changed its name, and to check for its contact details.
If you can’t remember the details, or your bank or building society says it can’t help, you can use the free My Lost Account tracing service.
There are over 70 providers signed up the scheme, including all major banks, all 43 UK building societies, and National Savings & Investments (NS&I) – including the old Post Office Savings Bank accounts.
You should get a response from providers within three months.
As NS&I is included, this means you’ll find out if you’ve got any lost Premium Bonds too.
Once you know you’ve got them, you can use NS&I’s free online prize checker tool to see if you’ve won any Premium Bond prizes.
You can reclaim wins all the way back to June 1957.
Child Trust Funds
Millions of parents could be missing out on up to £1,500 stashed away in a Child Trust Fund in their child’s name.
Children born between September 1, 2002 and August 2, 2010, were given a government bonus of £250 each through the tax-free scheme when they were born, and then another £250 when the child reached the age of seven.
While children born between August 3, 2010 and January 2, 2011 got £50.
Lower income families would receive double the amount – adding to up to £1,000 in savings.
The average account lying unclaimed in these accounts is £1,500 – many parents and family members also paid into the accounts at the start.
If you don’t know if your child has one, use the government’s free online tool.
You’ll need a government “Gateway” ID to do this, although if you don’t have one you can create one when you fill in the online form.
HMRC will then get back to you, usually within three weeks.
The Sun previously spoke to one mum who found £800 in her son’s missing Child Trust Fund.
Lost insurance policies
How to reclaim lost insurance policies depends on the type of policy you have.
If you know the name of the company, first use the free Policydetective.co.uk site to check if the company has changed its name, and to uncover its contact details.
For those who can’t remember the name, trade body the Association of British Insurers (ABI) recommends checking for lost life insurance policies using credit reference agency Experian’s Unclaimed Assets Register.
Just bear in mind that this service costs £25 for each search.
For car insurance policies, check the Motor Insurer’s Bureau Database.
When it comes to travel, home and other insurance policies, unfortunately there is no central policy database you can check.
Your best bet is to check bank and credit card statements for recurring payments or direct debits to an insurer.
Lost pensions
We have an average of 11 jobs during our working lives, which makes it easy to lose track of workplace pensions.
Meanwhile, personal pensions can get lost when you move house, change your name or don’t update your personal details.
If you know the pension provider or employer, the Pension Tracing Service – the government’s free tracing service – will find you the contact details needed to start your search.
But it won’t be able to tell you whether you have a pension or what its value is.
The Pensions Advisory Service is another free service with a pension tracing tool, but again it warns that it may struggle to help if you’re unable to provide key details.
We spoke to one saver who discovered a missing pension pots worth £27,000.
Lost investments
If you’re struggling to find a record of your investments, you can check by getting in contact with the company you have shares in.
There are also three main company registers which hold all this information – Computershare, Equiniti, and Link Asset Services.
But keep in mind that they will charge you a replacement shares certificate, although they’ll conduct a search for free.
Alternatively, you can try contacting trade bodies the Investment Association or the Association of Investment Companies.
The amount you could claim back would depend on how much you’ve invested.
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