Dormant and lost accounts

If you don’t use a sterling business current or savings for some time, it will become dormant and we’ll need to close it to help protect you from potential fraud, such as identity theft.

This will mean you won’t be able to make transactions and would need to re-apply to open a new account. We’ll always try to contact you before we close your account and explain how to keep it open. You’ll usually just need to make a payment into or out of the account.

To determine whether or not your sterling account is dormant, we’ll look at when you last initiated a transaction using your account. For sterling business current accounts, we won’t consider activity on any of the other accounts you have with us.

For sterling business saving accounts, we won’t close your account if you’re actively using another sterling business current or savings account held with us under the same business name.

If there’s no money in your account and you’re happy for us to close it, you won’t need to do anything. If we don’t hear back from you, we’ll close your account within 90 days of contacting you.

If you do have money in your account, please contact us and we’ll arrange to return the money to you and close the account. For more information, see ‘How do I get my money back?’ further down the page.

If you don’t use a business currency account for some time, the account won’t be closed. However, we’ll need to make it dormant and inaccessible to help protect you from potential fraud, such as identity theft.

To determine whether or not your currency account is dormant, we’ll look at when you last initiated a transaction using your account. For business currency accounts, we won’t consider activity on any of the other accounts you have with us.

If you have money left in the account, you won’t lose it. However, you won’t be able to access the money, or see your account in Online Banking or the Barclays app¹.

You’ll need to submit a claim to reactivate the account or reclaim the money. For more information, see ‘How do I get my money back?’ further down the page.

If we close your account, you won’t be able to use it. You’ll need to re-apply to open a new account instead.

If you have money left in the account, we’ll move it to a holding account where it will still earn interest at the same rate as before. You can then submit a claim to get this money back.

For more information, see ‘How do I get my money back?’ below.

For business current and saving accounts, you can either submit a claim with a member of staff in a branch or send us a letter letting us know where we should transfer your money.

If you’re submitting a claim in branch, you’ll need to be one of the official account signatories named on the business mandate. You’ll also need to bring your original photographic proof of identify and original proof of address that matches the information on your business mandate. We’ll then copy and certify these in the branch.

If you’re submitting a claim by letter, it needs to be signed by the authorising officials detailed in your business mandate. You’ll need to include certified copies of photographic proof of identity and proof of address, both for yourself and any additional authorising officials – these must match the information on your business mandate. Please address the letter to:

Dormancy Team
Barclays
Leicester
LE87 2BB

For business currency accounts, you’ll need to submit your claim in a branch and be one of the official account signatories named on the business mandate. You’ll need to bring your original photographic proof of identify and original proof of address that matches the information on your business mandate. We’ll then copy and certify these in the branch.

Once you’ve submitted your claim in a branch or by post, we might need to contact you for more information.

If your account has been inactive or closed for more than 15 years, you might need to reclaim your money through the Unclaimed Assets Scheme instead. For more information, see ‘What is the Unclaimed Assets Scheme?’ below.

The Unclaimed Assets Scheme was created under the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008. It allows money from accounts that have been inactive or closed for 15 years or more to be redistributed to socially beneficial programmes, while still protecting the owner’s rights to reclaim their money.

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

If we transfer the balance of your account to RFL, you’ll still have the same rights to reclaim your money. However, we’ll be responsible for handling your repayment claim on behalf of RFL.

If you have any questions, queries or complaints about reclaiming your account balance, please contact us in the usual way.

Both Barclays and RFL are part of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). If we transfer your balance to RFL, it won’t negatively impact any entitlement you have to compensation from the FSCS.