Dormant and lost personal accounts

If you have a current or savings account with us that you haven’t used for some time, we might need to close it to help protect you from potential fraud, such as identify theft.

We’ll always try to contact you before we do this. We’ll explain what you need to do to keep the account open – this is usually to make a payment into or out of it. 

If there’s no money in the account and you’re happy for us to close it, you don’t need to do anything – if we don’t hear from you, we’ll close your account within 90 days of first getting in touch. If you do have some money in it, please get in touch and we’ll arrange to return the money to you. We’ll also be able to close the account at the same time. 

If you have some money left in your account, we’ll move it to a central holding account where it’ll still earn interest at the same rate as before, if applicable. You can submit a claim to get this money back – we explain how on this page.

We’re unable to close currency accounts, so we’ll make it dormant (inactive). If you have any money left in it, it’ll stay in there but you won’t be able to access the cash, or see the account in Online Banking or the Barclays app. You can claim the money by following the steps we explain on this page.

You’ll need to submit a claim to get your money back. 

Download the claim form

Complete the form, print it, and post it with two forms of certified ID to

BARCLAYS

Leicester

LE87 2BB

If you’re unable to do this, please visit a branch, or write to us at the address above, and we may be able to start the claim for you.

If we have all the information we need, we can process a claim within two weeks.

If you’re not sure who your account was with, you can trace it at mylostaccount.org.uk. It’s a free service that helps you trace lost current and savings accounts, supported by the Building Societies Association (BSA), National Savings and Investment (NS&I) and UK Finance. 

We participate in the Unclaimed Assets Scheme established under the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008. The purpose of the scheme is to enable money in dormant accounts to be distributed for the benefit of the community while protecting the rights of customers to reclaim their money. An account is considered dormant when it’s been inactive for 15 years or more.

Under the scheme, we may transfer balances of dormant accounts to Reclaim Fund Ltd (RFL). RFL is a not-for-profit reclaim fund that’s authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (No 536551).

If we transfer the money in your account to RFL, you can still reclaim it. We’ll still handle all the claims and manage the process, so you should follow the same process as we've explained on this page.

Both we and RFL participate in the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). If we transfer your money to RFL, it won’t negatively affect any entitlement you have to compensation from the FSCS.

This only applies to sterling accounts.