Find your missing money for free
Chris Broome – Chartered Financial Planner
It’s thought there could be as much as £50 billion in total in lost bank and building society accounts, Premium Bonds, pensions, investments and insurance policies.
It’s easy to lose touch with one or more of your accounts. Perhaps you’ve moved addresses or you may have had an account opened for you as a child that you’ve forgotten about.
An account can be lost or marked as ‘inactive’ if:
- a financial institution hasn’t been able to contact you – most commonly because you’ve changed addresses and haven’t notified them of your new address
- there has been no activity on your account for a few years (such as deposits or withdrawals)
Even if an account has been marked inactive for several years, the money in it is still yours and you are entitled to claim it at any time.
1. How can I find a lost account?
Thankfully, if you think you may have a lost account, there’s a free and easy way to check with ‘Gretel’.
Launched, in 2022, ‘Gretel’ is a free online hub which reunites consumers with lost and dormant accounts across the entire financial service industry.
2. How does it work?
Gretel is designed to help consumers find everything from their first bank account to a forgotten pension. It uses cutting edge technology to make the financial world a smaller place, bringing together companies and consumers creating a “hub” which acts as a one stop shop for finding and recovering lost assets.
Gretel will cover the whole financial industry in the UK including bank accounts, pensions, child trust funds, premium bonds, investments and life insurance policies.
Gretel uses intelligent technology to help customers see where they might have left money and then helps them reclaim it. People get married, move home, move jobs and it is often difficult to keep track of every bank account, pension and investment. Gretel will work with financial companies to do the right thing for their customers and reconnect them with their money. Once Gretel has found a customer’s pots of money, it will then connect them with the bank, investment company, pension provider and walk them through how to reclaim their money.
Uniquely, once a customer has signed up with Gretel, the service will keep working for them to constantly look for lost monies and flag any new accounts as and when they are identified.
And importantly membership to the Gretel platform and its use is free. Gretel believes that consumers are entitled to receive all of the value of the money due to them and should not have to pay to get back their own money.
3. Get your money back
If you think you may have a lost account, head over to the Gretel website and sign up for your free account. Then leave the rest to Gretel.
