How To Track Down Missing Money
November 2005
If you think that there's money or investments belonging to you in accounts that have long been forgotten, then the good news is there are many agencies that can help you track down and locate these assets.
But the number one rule must be to be on guard for shyster companies that will offer to help you but in reality are nothing more than money generating ventures for their owners. One good example of this is a website called missingcash.co.uk which operates a premium rate number costing over £10. The website gives absolutely no help whatsoever apart from saying call this number if your surname is on their list. The list includes what looks like every possible surname in the English language!
What Is Missing Money?
There's between £15-£20 billion in money that's been lost somewhere in the financial system. Some of it by people who've passed away but the majority has just been forgotten. An example would be a small pension policy from a job you had 30 years ago with the company in question long since gone.
Here are some common areas where missing money is lurking -
- Dormant building society and bank account
- Old pension plan
- Premium Bonds
- Unclaimed lottery prises
- Forgotten life insurance policies
- Shares and unclaimed dividends
- The number one reason this money gets lost is because people fail to leave a forwarding address when they move house
How To Find Missing Money
Get ready for some real detective work with ventures that lead down many dead ends. But stay positive because each dead end actually means one less road to travel down. Tracing missing money takes a lot of time especially if the accounts are old and you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for.
Here are the organisations you should start to contact and note that some specialise in just certain types of accounts like banks for example.
- Premium Bonds - www.nsandi.com - Provides a free search on the website
- General Search - Unclaimed Assets Register - www.uar.co.uk
- The UAR will charge £17 for a general search and £35 for a pension search but they are 100% legitimate and are not some scam operation. Using the service you can scan for life policies, pension plan, unit trusts and shares
- Insurance Policies - Association of British Insurers - www.abi.org.uk
- For Pensions - The Pensions Service - www.thepensionservice.gov.uk
- Dormant Building Society and Bank accounts - Building Society Association - www.bsa.org.uk and/or British Bankers Association - www.bba.org.uk
- Unit & Stockmarket Investment Trusts - Investment Management Association - www.investmentuk.org also look at the Association of Investment Trust Companies - www.aitc.co.uk
- Shares & dividends - Do a Google search on the company in question and then contact them directly. If you can find no information then contact the London Stock Exchange to find details on what happened to the original company. Perhaps it changed its name, was taken over or unfortunately it might have gone bust
Summary
It’s a dream we all have of finding unexpected money, like a treasure hunt so to speak. But in order to make sure the dream doesn’t turn into a nightmare try and make sure that there is actually some money out there, and that amount is worth pursuing.
Good luck in finding your missing money!
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