Banking Problem

[Tippaporn]

This topic is an aspect of this topic, but needs to be separate.
 

 

The back story:  the deceased has lived in Thailand since 1991 with only two return trips to the UK in those 33 years.

 

Problem:

 

Back in the eighties he had bought an undetermined number of shares of British Airways and Rolls Royce.  He had opened an account at NatWest for the specific purpose of receiving the dividends from his shares.  He then forgot about the account.  Fast forward to 2 January 2020 when he contacted NatWest requesting his lost account number.  Now fast forward to 13 May 2020 when he sent a follow up email to NatWest requesting that someone give the matter attention.

 

That's all the information I have.

 

The question is, what course of action to take for both the NatWest account and locating the shares.

[Red Phoenix]

I hope a UK member here can provide you with the information on what steps to take to check the balance on that NatWest Bank-account and the wherabouts of those shares.

I recommend doing the above first, as any follow-up action you take will depend on the current value of these shares and the interest they have accumulated during the 40 years on that NatWest bank-account.

And if it is not a VERY considerable amount, it might not be worth pursuing it. 

Reason for me stating this, is that I have a British friend that left the UK 50 years ago and has been living in South-Africa ever since.  When he left the UK he had an active HSBC bank-account with a considerable amount of money on it.  The first 30 years that he was in South-Africa he had a successful business and didn't need access to the funds on his UK HSBC-account

But due to circumstances he encountered business difficulties and when he tried to get hold of the funds on that account, he was given the run-around by HSBC for years on end and had kind of given up hope of ever getting access to the money on that account.  But last year he was in dire need of getting access to those funds, and at his wits end he flew first time back to UK in order to be able to confront in person the HSBC-branche where his 50 year old account was located, to get access to the funds on that UK bank-account. 

But as he didn't had a permanent address in UK, he was still denied access.  He had to move in at an old friend of 50-years back that he had stayed in contact with, in order to get some  'permanent residence' and even so it took several weeks and multiple visits to the bank, to finally get the 'assurance that he could transmit the funds to a South-African HSBC branche' allowing him to access them there.  I don't recall why he was not able to get the money in cash, but undoubtedly bank-procedures prevented that most preferable approach.  When he flew back to South-Africa - utterly disgusted by the treatment he had gotten from HSBC - it still took several weeks and multiple contacts with HSBC before he finally received the money he had ordered to be transferred to his South-African HSBC account.

Needless to say that once the full amount was available, that he took out everything an liquidated the account as he didn't want to remain a 'loyal customer' to that thieving bank. 

> The morale of that story is that contrary to what most people think, you are not the OWNER of the money you put on your bank-account.  Once you put money on your account it becomes the Bank's property, and you are a debtor to the Bank for the money that you provided.  And so the Bank as owner of the funds on your account, can - and will - impose all kind of procedures making it difficult for you - and in some cases like the above sheer impossible - to get access to the money that 'you lend them'.  

Note 1: It's one of the reasons that I spread my funds over several banks in different countries to avoid that being denied access to my bank-account would create a big problem.

Note 2: you can PM me if you would like to get first-hand info of my South-African friend how he finally managed in getting access to his UK bank-account.

[Tippaporn]

44 minutes ago, Red Phoenix said:

I hope a UK member here can provide you with the information on what steps to take to check the balance on that NatWest Bank-account and the wherabouts of those shares.

I recommend doing the above first, as any follow-up action you take will depend on the current value of these shares and the interest they have accumulated during the 40 years on that NatWest bank-account.

And if it is not a VERY considerable amount, it might not be worth pursuing it. 

Reason for me stating this, is that I have a British friend that left the UK 50 years ago and has been living in South-Africa ever since.  When he left the UK he had an active HSBC bank-account with a considerable amount of money on it.  The first 30 years that he was in South-Africa he had a successful business and didn't need access to the funds on his UK HSBC-account

But due to circumstances he encountered business difficulties and when he tried to get hold of the funds on that account, he was given the run-around by HSBC for years on end and had kind of given up hope of ever getting access to the money on that account.  But last year he was in dire need of getting access to those funds, and at his wits end he flew first time back to UK in order to be able to confront in person the HSBC-branche where his 50 year old account was located, to get access to the funds on that UK bank-account. 

But as he didn't had a permanent address in UK, he was still denied access.  He had to move in at an old friend of 50-years back that he had stayed in contact with, in order to get some  'permanent residence' and even so it took several weeks and multiple visits to the bank, to finally get the 'assurance that he could transmit the funds to a South-African HSBC branche' allowing him to access them there.  I don't recall why he was not able to get the money in cash, but undoubtedly bank-procedures prevented that most preferable approach.  When he flew back to South-Africa - utterly disgusted by the treatment he had gotten from HSBC - it still took several weeks and multiple contacts with HSBC before he finally received the money he had ordered to be transferred to his South-African HSBC account.

Needless to say that once the full amount was available, that he took out everything an liquidated the account as he didn't want to remain a 'loyal customer' to that thieving bank. 

> The morale of that story is that contrary to what most people think, you are not the OWNER of the money you put on your bank-account.  Once you put money on your account it becomes the Bank's property, and you are a debtor to the Bank for the money that you provided.  And so the Bank as owner of the funds on your account, can - and will - impose all kind of procedures making it difficult for you - and in some cases like the above sheer impossible - to get access to the money that 'you lend them'.  

Note 1: It's one of the reasons that I spread my funds over several banks in different countries to avoid that being denied access to my bank-account would create a big problem.

Note 2: you can PM me if you would like to get first-hand info of my South-African friend how he finally managed in getting access to his UK bank-account.

 

Gee, Halloween is next Thursday and after reading that horror story I can skip the slasher movie I was going to watch this weekend.  That would be mild in comparison.  Thanks for the spine tingling tale of fright.

 

 

It's true what you say that the banks own your money once you deposit it with them.  I've learned that during the '08 financial crisis.  Only in a crooked system can that arrangement be codified.

[OJAS]

The following link sets out the procedures for recovering money held on dormant NatWest accounts:

 

https://www.natwest.com/current-accounts/dormant-accounts.html

 

On the off-chance that the deceased individual did, indeed, make out a UK will then the appointed executors of his UK estate would, I think, be best placed to deal with this matter. Otherwise little hope, I'm afraid - certainly no action which you yourself could take personally, it would appear.