warning to all (re. Dormant Accounts)

The addition of interest does not qualify as a transaction, in the prevention of an a/c going dormant. It's wise as a previous poster said, to just lodge €1 or something small once a yr to just keep an a/c active.

The rationale behind having to bring identification is because banks put in great effort in notifying people before dormant a/c's are taken over by the Government. In BOI we get a list every year of people we have to try to contact.

Several statements may have been sent out & letters & sometimes to the wrong address, if customer has failed to notify about a move.

Would you like somebody else to just waltz in & take your money ?

Even if the funds have been seized, they are still re-claimable when the correct documentation is supplied.

And I'm sorry if it's hassle, but everything we do has to be backed up with a signature, unless it's some act of self-service like online or telephone banking where you use your pin.

My wife & I have several dormant accounts, mainly very small amounts involved, with An Post and ILP.

The response from our local PO is that they don't have time/forms etc. If we're lucky there's a tenner between these accounts.

The ILP accounts (3) have a couple of hundred (I know, we should have cleaned them out years ago!). We live in Cork and two of the accounts were opened in different Dublin branches. Our local ILP branch says we both (joint accounts) must present ourselves at each of the branches in Dublin if we want to reinstate the accounts.

Is this onerous procedure correct? Seems to be disproportionate. I would have thought, once one had the appropriate documentation, that the local branch would be able to sort the accounts out - we want to close them.

Anyone had similar experience?