Can a bank take your money for inactivity?

0 votes
asked Oct 20, 2024 in Other-Finance by Twinn5443 (1,660 points)
Can a bank take your money for inactivity?

1 Answer

0 votes
answered Oct 21, 2024 by landobrian (14,350 points)
A bank can take some of your money for inactivity once the account goes dormant and some banks may have fees for inactivity on the bank account.

Eventually if your bank account stays dormant the account is closed and the rest of the money in the bank account is transferred to the government.

You do lose money in a dormant bank account once the account has been closed after 3 to 5 years of being dormant.

The bank may charge some fees for the dormant bank account and then eventually once the bank account is closed the money is considered unclaimed and then the bank eventually releases the money in the dormant and closed bank account to the government.

If your bank account goes dormant it's important to contact the bank as soon as possible to recover your dormant bank account and money.

Dormant bank accounts eventually get closed but it can take between 3 to 5 years without any activity or contact with the bank for the dormant bank account to be closed.

A bank account can stay dormant for between 3 to 5 years before it is closed.

The length of time your bank account can stay dormant before being closed varies from bank to bank but the average is 3 to 5 years.

You can recover a dormant bank account if the dormant bank account has not been closed.

To recover a dormant bank account you simply go to your bank and provide them with some ID and details and let them know you want to recover the dormant account.

You may also be able to do so over the phone but if your bank has a physical location it's best to go into the bank with your ID and let them know you want to reactivate the dormant bank account.

You will sometimes need to make a deposit or transaction in the bank account when reactivating it.

When your bank account says dormant it means that there's been no activity on the bank account such as withdrawals or deposits for awhile.

I had this happen to me before when I had moved out of state and setup a new bank account and had my direct deposits for my job paid into the new bank account.

I still had $500.00 in my dormant bank account and hadn't moved it over but was planning to eventually but somehow I forgot about it.

Then one day around 6 months later I remembered the bank account and so signed into my online account and it said dormant.

I simply contacted the bank about it and verified some information and let them know what happened and they reopened my account so I could get my money.

Some banks only put accounts into dormant mode when it's been a year or longer since you last logged in or made a deposit or withdrawal and some banks do it sooner.

Banks will mark a bank account dormant as a way to prevent any fraud and unauthorized activity.

Depending on the bank you can reactivate your bank account by making a transaction with the bank or by contacting the bank.

Different banks have different regulations on how they will activate dormant bank accounts.

The length of time a bank account can stay dormant is between 3 years to 5 years.

A bank account is usually considered to be abandoned or unclaimed if there is not customer initiated activity within 3 to 5 years.

The bank may then close the dormant bank account after that time period.

108,690 questions

116,126 answers

1,345 comments

7,058,477 users

...