Lost savings and prizes can be traced more easily

Consumers in the UK may be able to trace any lost savings or financial winnings more easily as the result of a website that has been set up by banks, building societies, and National Savings and Investments. The website is a joint venture, and consumers can try and trace their money through www.mylostaccount.org.uk.

Reports claim that banks and building societies hold around £500 million worth of lost money, and more or less the same amount of lost money is with National Savings and Investments.

On top of this there are lost premium bond winnings amounting to nearly £30 million that have never been claimed.

Most of the unclaimed premium bond prizes are smaller ones, but one is for £25,000 according to NS&I. One official said: ‘Sometimes it’s difficult to find a winner because we cannot disclose their name to the public, but we can disclose the area where they live, which usually helps us to search them out. We’ve tracked people down from everywhere to Canada, the US and up the Amazon. We use our strong ties with the Post Office as well as search agencies. We have 2,000 change-of-address forms coming through each week for Premium Bonds, so it could be that the person moved several times over the years and we just lost track of them.’