More viewers have been in touch about the problems they're having once they ask their banks to track down money left forgotten in dormant accounts.
Customers who have provided proof that money is held in their name have told us that their bank would not pay it back because the bank's records had been destroyed. Others have said that even when their bank agreed they were owed money, their local branch refused to pay it out.
In 1965, Mary Aschenbrenner, from Oldham, opened an account at Williams Deacon's Bank in the name of her two-week-old daughter, Jane. Mary and her husband Peter continued to make deposits for the next 25 years until they misplaced the bank book. Then, eventually, they forgot about the account.
Found the bank book when moving house
It was not until 2006 when the couple were moving house that they found the bank book again. It showed the last transaction had been in 1991, and that the balance then was £221.07.
Jane's account was now 'dormant' - a term used to describe accounts that haven't been used for more than 15 years. Such accounts aren't actually closed, and it should have been straightforward for the family to get access to their money. Williams Deacon's Bank was now part of the Royal Bank of Scotland, so Peter went to the local branch with the bank book. But he was met with confusion.
According to Peter, "They didn't seem to know really what to do. They said that their records only went back so far."
The Royal Bank of Scotland searched its records but said it couldn't locate details of the Aschenbrenners' account - and refused to pay the family their money. Now, in March 2009, three years after first approaching the bank with proof of their account, the Aschenbrenners are no closer to getting their money back.
Those three years have been frustrating but Watchdog has been contacted by a couple who've been trying to get their money back for 20 years.
In 1988, Jeanette Swann came across the bank book for an account she had last used in 1973. The book showed she had left the account with a balance of £175.75. The account was with the Midlands Bank so she and her husband Malcolm contacted them straight away to track down their money.
But the couple were told that the bank's records had been destroyed in a fire. So far as the bank was concerned, no records meant no money for the couple.
Jeanette said she felt very frustrated. "I thought well, your records have gone but mine haven't. I've got my book here. Why should I be penalised for them losing their records?"
But Malcolm refused to let the matter be forgotten again. He continued to request the return of their money from Midlands Bank and later from HSBC who took that bank over. However, 20 years after the couple first asked their bank to trace their dormant account, the Swanns have still not been given their money. Most recently, HSBC told them their account was not dormant but had, in fact, been closed.
Malcolm doesn't believe this.
He says: "If they closed the account then they would have stamped closed on the passbook, or probably punched holes in the passbook, but it's not. We're not asking for special treatment. We just want our money."
According to the banks, there's currently £850 million in unclaimed cash in dormant bank accounts. But Derek French, the director of The Campaign for Community Banking Services, says some customers are having trouble accessing their dormant accounts because they start the process at their local branch.
Derek said: It's very difficult these days to do anything at branch level that is out of the ordinary. Trying to trace an account that might have been opened 40 or 50 years ago is out of the ordinary."
But even when the bank agrees it does have your money, it's not always easy to get it out. Susan McLean's father opened a bank account in his daughter's name and paid into it for years. In 1979, when the balance was £29.28, he gave Susan the bank book so she could manage the account herself.
Susan put the bank book among her other paperwork and forgot about it.
Some 29 years later the book resurfaced
Susan's bank had by now become Lloyds TSB (before going on to be the Lloyds Banking Group). So Susan contacted Lloyds about tracing the dormant account. It was good news - Lloyds found a record of it and told Susan all she had to do to reclaim her money was call into her local branch with some ID.
Unfortunately when Susan called at her local branch with her ID, the staff didn't have a clue what to do. Five months later, Susan still hasn't been paid her money.
The banks are very good at accounting for every penny we owe them. It seems they're not always so thorough when it's the other way round. We want them to keep our money safe but not so safe that we'll never see it again.
Royal Bank of Scotland's response to the case of Mary and Jane Aschenbrenner
"At RBS, the balance of any dormant account remains available and accessible to the customer at all times and interest, if applicable, will be applied.
"Our Shaw branch can find no evidence that Jane Egerton [later Jane Aschenbrenner] presented them with a dormancy account form. Her parents did put in a request on her behalf in October 2008 but due to customer confidentiality, the branch could not proceed with the request until they received Jane's direct authority which they never received. There seems to have been a misunderstanding so on this occasion and as a gesture of goodwill, we are prepared to give Jane Egerton [later Jane Aschenbrenner] the £221.07 she believes she had in an account plus interest of £22.
"When any account becomes dormant and remains so for a period of five years, under our current internal procedures the holding branch should at first try to make contact with the customer to seek instructions. If this proves unsuccessful and there is no response for a further three months, we close the account and put the details on our dormant account register which is a permanent record. No records would be destroyed."
HSBC's response to the case of Malcolm and Jeanette Swann
"HSBC is making considerable efforts to reunite our current and former customers with their dormant accounts and was one of the first banks to launch its own reunification programme in support of the BBA work. Since launching our campaign last year we have reunited nearly 4,000 customers with their dormant accounts. This is in addition to the nearly 5,000 cases we have resolved which have come to us through the BBA. The vast majority of cases are resolved very quickly, but there will be rare occasions when things do not go smoothly and it takes longer than usual to resolve, particularly if a customer does not accept there is no record of a dormant account.
A balance showing in an old passbook is not proof that there are funds still held in a dormant account. Passbooks were the means to enable customers to keep track of their transactions and balance, but they were an imprecise record. Customers did not have to present their passbook to make deposits or withdrawals, provided they could identify themselves. Money could be taken from accounts to make regular payments, such as personal loans, or indeed be deposited by third parties. Furthermore, passbooks could go missing and would be replaced, the balance being transferred from the branch ledgers, which were an accurate and complete record of a customer's transactions and real time balances.
Banks retain records of customer transactions for six years, as they are required to do under the Data Protection Act. This reflects the fact that most people do not want companies that they have chosen to no longer deal with to hold their personal information indefinitely.
As such, six years after an account is closed, records of that account - the statements and transaction records - are destroyed. The Swanns were informed of this in our original letter in 1989 and in all subsequent correspondence.
If the account had not been closed it would be recorded on the unclaimed balance records from the branch. These records are full and complete and have been checked thoroughly on several occasions.
We have carried out extensive searches of our dormant account records and found no record of an account in this name. We have also approached the Shirley branch in Southampton and they have found nothing at the branch. We have searched under the surname Swann and the customer's maiden name. As the customer lives in the Midlands we have also searched the records for the Shirley branch in the West Midlands without success.
A dormant account is not a closed account, after two years orphaned assets are managed by HSBC with appropriate records maintained. As noted, we have complete records of dormant accounts from the relevant branches and there is no record of a dormant account in the name.
No money is owed to Mr and Mrs Swann. This is the same response that they have been given on many occasions. They are of course free to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service."
Lloyds Banking Group's response to the case of Susan McLean
"We are sorry for the problems Mrs Mclean has experienced tracing her account. We have apologised to her and a cheque for £50 has now been sent. This does not reflect our usual high standard of customer service and we encourage any customer that believes they may have unclaimed funds with Lloyds TSB to contact us."
Further advice
You can phone the BBA on 020 7216 8909 to track dormant bank accounts or email them at lostaccount@bba.org.uk.
Alternatively, you can go to the following two websites for more advice.
Dormant banks accounts follow-up
Customers who have provided proof that money is held in their name have told us that their bank would not pay it back because the bank's records had been destroyed. Others have said that even when their bank agreed they were owed money, their local branch refused to pay it out.
In 1965, Mary Aschenbrenner, from Oldham, opened an account at Williams Deacon's Bank in the name of her two-week-old daughter, Jane. Mary and her husband Peter continued to make deposits for the next 25 years until they misplaced the bank book. Then, eventually, they forgot about the account.
Found the bank book when moving house
It was not until 2006 when the couple were moving house that they found the bank book again. It showed the last transaction had been in 1991, and that the balance then was £221.07.
Jane's account was now 'dormant' - a term used to describe accounts that haven't been used for more than 15 years. Such accounts aren't actually closed, and it should have been straightforward for the family to get access to their money. Williams Deacon's Bank was now part of the Royal Bank of Scotland, so Peter went to the local branch with the bank book. But he was met with confusion.
According to Peter, "They didn't seem to know really what to do. They said that their records only went back so far."
The Royal Bank of Scotland searched its records but said it couldn't locate details of the Aschenbrenners' account - and refused to pay the family their money. Now, in March 2009, three years after first approaching the bank with proof of their account, the Aschenbrenners are no closer to getting their money back.
Those three years have been frustrating but Watchdog has been contacted by a couple who've been trying to get their money back for 20 years.
In 1988, Jeanette Swann came across the bank book for an account she had last used in 1973. The book showed she had left the account with a balance of £175.75. The account was with the Midlands Bank so she and her husband Malcolm contacted them straight away to track down their money.
But the couple were told that the bank's records had been destroyed in a fire. So far as the bank was concerned, no records meant no money for the couple.
Jeanette said she felt very frustrated. "I thought well, your records have gone but mine haven't. I've got my book here. Why should I be penalised for them losing their records?"
But Malcolm refused to let the matter be forgotten again. He continued to request the return of their money from Midlands Bank and later from HSBC who took that bank over. However, 20 years after the couple first asked their bank to trace their dormant account, the Swanns have still not been given their money. Most recently, HSBC told them their account was not dormant but had, in fact, been closed.
Malcolm doesn't believe this.
He says: "If they closed the account then they would have stamped closed on the passbook, or probably punched holes in the passbook, but it's not. We're not asking for special treatment. We just want our money."
According to the banks, there's currently £850 million in unclaimed cash in dormant bank accounts. But Derek French, the director of The Campaign for Community Banking Services, says some customers are having trouble accessing their dormant accounts because they start the process at their local branch.
Derek said: It's very difficult these days to do anything at branch level that is out of the ordinary. Trying to trace an account that might have been opened 40 or 50 years ago is out of the ordinary."
But even when the bank agrees it does have your money, it's not always easy to get it out. Susan McLean's father opened a bank account in his daughter's name and paid into it for years. In 1979, when the balance was £29.28, he gave Susan the bank book so she could manage the account herself.
Susan put the bank book among her other paperwork and forgot about it.
Some 29 years later the book resurfaced
Susan's bank had by now become Lloyds TSB (before going on to be the Lloyds Banking Group). So Susan contacted Lloyds about tracing the dormant account. It was good news - Lloyds found a record of it and told Susan all she had to do to reclaim her money was call into her local branch with some ID.
Unfortunately when Susan called at her local branch with her ID, the staff didn't have a clue what to do. Five months later, Susan still hasn't been paid her money.
The banks are very good at accounting for every penny we owe them. It seems they're not always so thorough when it's the other way round. We want them to keep our money safe but not so safe that we'll never see it again.
Royal Bank of Scotland's response to the case of Mary and Jane Aschenbrenner
"At RBS, the balance of any dormant account remains available and accessible to the customer at all times and interest, if applicable, will be applied.
"Our Shaw branch can find no evidence that Jane Egerton [later Jane Aschenbrenner] presented them with a dormancy account form. Her parents did put in a request on her behalf in October 2008 but due to customer confidentiality, the branch could not proceed with the request until they received Jane's direct authority which they never received. There seems to have been a misunderstanding so on this occasion and as a gesture of goodwill, we are prepared to give Jane Egerton [later Jane Aschenbrenner] the £221.07 she believes she had in an account plus interest of £22.
"When any account becomes dormant and remains so for a period of five years, under our current internal procedures the holding branch should at first try to make contact with the customer to seek instructions. If this proves unsuccessful and there is no response for a further three months, we close the account and put the details on our dormant account register which is a permanent record. No records would be destroyed."
HSBC's response to the case of Malcolm and Jeanette Swann
"HSBC is making considerable efforts to reunite our current and former customers with their dormant accounts and was one of the first banks to launch its own reunification programme in support of the BBA work. Since launching our campaign last year we have reunited nearly 4,000 customers with their dormant accounts. This is in addition to the nearly 5,000 cases we have resolved which have come to us through the BBA. The vast majority of cases are resolved very quickly, but there will be rare occasions when things do not go smoothly and it takes longer than usual to resolve, particularly if a customer does not accept there is no record of a dormant account.
A balance showing in an old passbook is not proof that there are funds still held in a dormant account. Passbooks were the means to enable customers to keep track of their transactions and balance, but they were an imprecise record. Customers did not have to present their passbook to make deposits or withdrawals, provided they could identify themselves. Money could be taken from accounts to make regular payments, such as personal loans, or indeed be deposited by third parties. Furthermore, passbooks could go missing and would be replaced, the balance being transferred from the branch ledgers, which were an accurate and complete record of a customer's transactions and real time balances.
Banks retain records of customer transactions for six years, as they are required to do under the Data Protection Act. This reflects the fact that most people do not want companies that they have chosen to no longer deal with to hold their personal information indefinitely.
As such, six years after an account is closed, records of that account - the statements and transaction records - are destroyed. The Swanns were informed of this in our original letter in 1989 and in all subsequent correspondence.
If the account had not been closed it would be recorded on the unclaimed balance records from the branch. These records are full and complete and have been checked thoroughly on several occasions.
We have carried out extensive searches of our dormant account records and found no record of an account in this name. We have also approached the Shirley branch in Southampton and they have found nothing at the branch. We have searched under the surname Swann and the customer's maiden name. As the customer lives in the Midlands we have also searched the records for the Shirley branch in the West Midlands without success.
A dormant account is not a closed account, after two years orphaned assets are managed by HSBC with appropriate records maintained. As noted, we have complete records of dormant accounts from the relevant branches and there is no record of a dormant account in the name.
No money is owed to Mr and Mrs Swann. This is the same response that they have been given on many occasions. They are of course free to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service."
Lloyds Banking Group's response to the case of Susan McLean
"We are sorry for the problems Mrs Mclean has experienced tracing her account. We have apologised to her and a cheque for £50 has now been sent. This does not reflect our usual high standard of customer service and we encourage any customer that believes they may have unclaimed funds with Lloyds TSB to contact us."
Further advice
You can phone the BBA on 020 7216 8909 to track dormant bank accounts or email them at lostaccount@bba.org.uk.
Alternatively, you can go to the following two websites for more advice.
Dormant banks accounts follow-up