If you think you may have lost touch with your bank, building society or National Savings & Investments account, this website will guide you through some simple steps to help reunite you with your money and find your lost account. What is a lost account?
There are many reasons why people lose touch with their accounts, but the most typical cause is a change of address. Banks, building societies and NS&I seek to keep in touch with their customers and will contact a customer if an account has been inactive for an extended period. If no response is received, the bank, building society or NS&I will stop sending correspondence and will class the account as ‘lost’. This is done to prevent ID theft and fraud. How do banks, building societies and NS&I contact their customers?
If you think this may apply to your personal account, the My Lost Account service will help you trace this money for FREE.
mylostaccount.org.uk can help you trace lost personal accounts if you are unsure of which bank or building society holds the account to which you have entitlement, including instances where the bank or building society has since closed or merged. NS&I investments can also be traced using this service.
It is a FREE service bringing together the three tracing schemes of UK Finance (UKF), the Building Societies Association (BSA) and National Savings and Investments (NS&I) into a single website. This means that anyone with a lost account with a bank, a building society, NS&I – or all three – can initiate a search simply by visiting this website and completing only one application form.
Information provided via the online application form will be passed securely to the institutions that may be holding the lost account. The institutions contacted will then carry out a search of their lost accounts and the applicant will be informed whether any account they hold matches the details submitted online.
The institutions will need to be satisfied about the identity of the applicant and their legal entitlement to the account money, before being able to reunite you with your account. This is for your protection.
If you are unsure whether your account is lost, or whether this service is appropriate for you, please see our FAQs for more information or read on below.
If you know the name of the bank or building society with which you held the account and that institution still exists, then it’s best to start by contacting that bank or building society directly.
In some cases, a bank or building society may still believe it has up to date contact details for your account and not have classified it as lost. In this case, it will not be possible to trace your account using the mylostaccount.org.uk service and you should contact your bank or building society directly.
Will Executors: If you are an executor, or the nearest of kin, seeking to settle the banking affairs of someone who has died, the first point of contact should be the bank and/or building society in question since the accounts in question may not be classified as lost. Advice on searching wills and legacies
Foreign accounts: If you are searching for accounts held abroad, then you need to contact those institutions directly. This service is for tracing UK accounts only. What if the account is with a foreign bank?
Charity or business accounts: If you are trying to locate a lost business or charity account, then consult your bank or building society for more details. This service is for personal accounts only.
For further information, please refer to the detailed FAQs on this website
Firstly you need to set up a profile using a valid email address and a password that contains at least one uppercase character, one lowercase character and one number. You will then be sent a verification link to the email you have provided. You will need to click on this link before you can continue so please ensure you have access to your emails. Once verified you will then be asked a series of questions including whether the account was in your name, your date of birth, current contact address, previous addresses, who you think the account was with etc. Please answer as many questions as you can as this will help with the search. Once you have completed your application you will be asked to check through the details and then submit the application. You will be emailed a unique application number and confirmation of your application having been submitted.
When a financial institution that you have selected has completed their search for your lost account you will either receive an email alert to say that an update is available on your profile or the institution will contact you directly. You can check the status of your application at anytime by visiting our website and logging in. You will receive the responses form the financial institutions selected within 90 days.
If you do are unable to apply online paper copies of the application forms are available on our website in our FAQs. This is a much slower process so where possible please complete the application online.