Martin Lewis has issued an alert for anyone who may have lost track of a savings account, pension, or Premium Bonds. Billions of pounds are sitting in forgotten UK bank accounts and unclaimed pension pots, often because people changed jobs and failed to update their contact details.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, the personal finance expert outlined simple steps to recover lost funds. He advised starting with any old paperwork: “If you got the old paperwork, contact the provider. Contact the pension firm. That’s the first step and always the easiest way.”
Pension Tracing Service
For pensions, Mr Lewis recommended the official government pension tracing service. “Go to gov.uk and look at the pension tracing service. You tell it the name of your old employer or pension provider, and it will tell you who it is now, as the pension may have changed. The company may have changed, and it provides contact details. Once you get in touch, they’ll want some ID, but that’s how you start to reclaim your pension.”
Lost Savings Accounts
For missing savings accounts—estimated at up to £75 billion in total—Mr Lewis pointed to mylostaccount.org.uk, a unifying tracing website set up by trade bodies. “You put your details in, and it has a list of banks and building societies. You tick all those you want it to check. If you’re not sure, tick as many as needed. A few weeks later, they’ll come back to you if you have money there. The only catch is that it defines ‘lost’ as inactive with no contact from you, so very recent accounts may not be in the database.”
Gretel Service
Mr Lewis also highlighted Gretel, a free service that works with financial organizations to reconnect people with lost money. “Gretel does a soft search on your credit file, so you don’t need to specify old providers. It works with all registered companies to reconnect you. It’s far quicker and easier, but only works with its partner companies, so it’s less comprehensive than the other two.”
He urged viewers to use these tools to track down forgotten assets, potentially recovering significant sums.
