Many of us have lived and worked overseas and possibly still have a bank account sitting in that country. I still have UK accounts since New Zealand phased out cheques, any family gifts for my children can be paid into my UK account so it does get used.

But if you have some funds sitting dormant in a UK account there is a possibility the Bank will close the account and move any funds into a central clearing account. You may not be aware until you suddenly find your funds are unavailable. The Bank will provide notice that they intend to move your funds unless you contact them but if your UK account has an outdated address, they almost certainly wouldn’t have been able to warn you.

I am currently assisting a client who had a sum in the UK that went through this process. The result is a couple of thousand pounds of my client’s money is swimming around in a central account somewhere, the Bank state they can’t help, the Ombudsman state the Bank hasn’t done anything wrong and after 18 months the client is back to where they started.

If you have a UK bank account with some funds in it, please do make sure your Bank has the correct address for you as it might save you a bit of an administrative nightmare in future!