Bank customers shocked as “dormant” accounts quietly eat away savings – and the one phone call that can stop it

Amelia Foster • January 23, 2026 07:40

Autumn doesn’t just bring darker evenings. It brings the admin you’ve been putting off: the stack of envelopes in a drawer, the email from a bank you “don’t really use any more”, the direct debit you keep meaning to check. Somewhere in that blur sits an old account you mentally filed under done and dusted. The balance wasn’t huge, but it felt safe. Parked. Out of sight, quietly earning a bit of interest for a future you.

Then one day you log in, or finally open the letter, and your stomach drops. The balance is lower than you remember. Fees. Monthly ones. Maybe a paper statement charge here, a “account maintenance” fee there. The account you thought was sleeping has been nibbling away at your money for months, sometimes years.

The worst part isn’t that it’s happening. It’s that, in many cases, a single firm phone call can stop it-and sometimes even reverse some of the damage.

How “dormant” accounts quietly leak your money

In banking jargon, a dormant account is one with no customer-initiated activity for a set period, often 12–15 years. Legally dormant accounts in the UK don’t usually rack up new fees; they’re often moved into the Government-backed unclaimed assets scheme and still protected.

The real problem is the accounts we personally think of as dormant: the half-forgotten current account you once used for bills, the old “premium” account you opened for the travel perks, the children’s saver you stopped paying into. These aren’t dormant to the bank. They’re alive, ticking, and following the small print you’ve long since forgotten.

Common ways these “sleeping” accounts drain money:

Monthly fees on packaged or “reward” current accounts you no longer use.
Overdraft usage fees and interest on small negative balances left uncleared.
Paper statement or “inactive” charges on certain older account types.
Terrible interest rates on old savings accounts, where inflation quietly erodes value.

You don’t see it because the amounts are small and regular. £10 here, £5 there. On a busy month, it looks like background noise. Over a few years, that noise turns into hundreds of pounds gone.

Ask James, 42, from Leeds, who kept “a bit of money” in an old travel account he once needed for insurance and airport lounge passes. He only logged in when he moved house, intending to tidy it up. The balance had shrunk by more than £300 in fees he hadn’t felt or seen. He felt stupid. But what he did next mattered more than the mistake.

Why people miss the warning signs

Banks rarely send a blazing red alert that says: “By the way, this account is now bad value for how you use it.” Your relationship with an account drifts quietly over time. What once suited you perfectly can become the financial equivalent of a standing order to nowhere.

There are a few reasons these leaks go unnoticed:

Paperless by default – statements land in an online inbox you never open.
Life creep – you move home, change email, switch phones; the bank writes to old details.
Tiny debits – “£9.99 fee” looks like a streaming service, not a bank charge.
Normalisation – you expect banks to take “a bit” and assume this is just how it is.

Let’s be honest: nobody sits down every month to line‑by‑line compare every bank charge they’ve ever agreed to. We promise ourselves we will, then dinner burns, kids need help with homework, or another work email lands. The fees keep going, very politely, in the background.

The one phone call that can stop the leak

Here’s the part most people don’t realise: you can often stop the damage with one focused phone call to your bank’s customer services, and sometimes reclaim part of what you’ve lost.

That call has three goals:

Stop the ongoing charge.
Ask to:
- downgrade to a free account, or
- close the unused account and move the balance, or
- remove a feature you don’t want (for example a “reward” upgrade you never use).
Ask for a refund of recent fees.
Be clear but polite:
- Explain you weren’t using the features you were being charged for.
- Say you didn’t realise the fees would continue once you stopped using the account.
- Ask whether, as a gesture of goodwill, they can refund fees for the last few months (or longer if they seem sympathetic).
Update your details and alerts.
Before you hang up:
- Confirm your current email, mobile and address.
- Ask to switch on text/app alerts for fees, overdrafts and low balances.

You don’t have to argue or confess you weren’t reading the small print. You’re a customer, you’ve spotted something that doesn’t feel right, and you’re giving the bank a chance to fix it. Many will, at least partially, if you stay calm and specific.

“If customers call as soon as they spot a pointless fee, we can usually do something,” a former call‑centre agent for a high street bank told me. “The longer it goes on, the harder it is to put right-but it’s almost always worth asking.”

A simple script you can copy

If the idea of calling your bank makes you tense, write down a short script before you dial. You don’t have to stick to it word‑for‑word, but it keeps you from freezing when the agent asks, “How can I help today?”

You could say something like:

“I’ve noticed regular fees on this account, but I’m not using the benefits. I’d like to stop these charges and move to a free account, or close this one completely.”
“Can you tell me exactly what these monthly fees cover, and when I agreed to them?”
“Given I’ve not used the benefits for a long time, could you refund some of these fees as a goodwill gesture?”
“Please confirm that no further monthly fees will be taken from this account.”

If you feel you were mis‑sold a packaged account-told you had to take one to get a loan or mortgage, or sold insurance you could never have used-make that clear. Mis‑selling is taken seriously, and opens the door to fuller refunds and, if needed, a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The key is to stay steady. You’re not begging. You’re correcting course.

How to spot if you’ve got a stealth‑draining account

Before you can make that phone call, you need to know which accounts are culprits. This is where an hour of boring admin can turn into real money.

Work through this checklist:

List all the banks you’ve ever used. Think student days, old jobs, joint accounts, store‑branded cards.
Check your credit report. Services like Experian, Equifax or TransUnion (often accessed free via apps) show open credit accounts you might have forgotten.
Search your email for “statement”, “your account”, each bank’s name. Old logins and PDFs often surface here.
Watch for small regular debits. On your main account, scan for repeating £5–£20 “account fee”, “package fee”, “reward”, or brand‑named account charges.

If you suspect a genuinely lost account with money still in it-something you can’t trace at all-the free My Lost Account service (from UK Finance, the Building Societies Association and NS&I) can help you search across multiple providers.

Here’s a quick cheat sheet of warning signs:

Red flag on your statement	What it likely means	What to do
Same £x.xx fee every month with your bank’s name	Packaged or reward current account	Call to downgrade or close; ask for fee refund
Small negative balance that never quite clears	Overdraft interest and charges	Pay it off; ask bank to remove or reduce overdraft
“Paper statement fee” or similar	Charge for posted statements	Switch to online only, or ask if they can waive
Savings account interest at 0.1% or similar	Old “zombie” saver	Move money to a better‑rate account at same or new bank

You don’t have to fix everything in one evening. Tackle one bank this week, another next. Modest, regular action beats a heroic “money overhaul” you never actually start.

What if the bank says no?

Sometimes the first answer won’t be the one you want. The agent might offer a partial refund, or say their policy is to go back only three or six months. You still have options.

Ask to escalate. Calmly request to speak to a supervisor or have your case reviewed.
Make a formal complaint. Every bank has a complaints procedure. You can do this by phone, secure message or letter. They have up to eight weeks to respond.
Take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. If you’re unhappy with the bank’s final response, or they drag their feet, you can ask the Ombudsman to look at it for free. They’ll weigh up what’s fair and reasonable.

You won’t always get everything back. But you’ll almost always stop further losses, and many people are surprised by how much is refunded once they push a little.

And crucially, the process forces you to update old contact details and untangle your accounts so this doesn’t happen again.

Building a “no more leaks” banking routine

Once you’ve made that first call and seen money flow back instead of out, it becomes easier to treat this as an ongoing habit rather than a one‑off rescue mission.

Simple routines that actually stick:

One “money hour” every three months. Log into all accounts, scan for new fees, tidy old direct debits.
Set alerts in your banking app. Low‑balance pings and fee alerts give you early warning.
Consolidate where it makes sense. Fewer, well‑chosen accounts are easier to monitor than a dozen relics from past jobs and flatshares.
Keep a tiny account map. One page (paper or digital) listing which bank does what for you now.

On the worst admin‑fatigue days, promise yourself this: open just one statement, or call just one bank. Then stop. Momentum matters more than martyrdom.

The accounts won’t make themselves fairer. But once you’ve seen how quickly one firm, prepared phone call can stop a quiet leak, it’s hard to go back to pretending you’re not losing anything.

FAQ:

Are UK banks allowed to charge fees on accounts I’m not really using? Yes, if those fees were part of the account’s terms when you signed up. The issue is less legality and more whether the account still suits your needs-and whether you were properly informed in the first place.

Can I get all my historic fees back? Not always. But you can often get several months, sometimes years, refunded-especially if the account was mis‑sold or you clearly weren’t using the paid‑for benefits.

Will closing an old account hurt my credit score? Closing a current account with no overdraft usually has little impact. Closing a credit card can affect utilisation, but it’s often still worth it if the card is costly and unused. Check your overall picture before you act.

What if I’m nervous about phoning-can I do this online? Many banks let you send a secure message or start a webchat from within their app. The “script” is the same: ask what the fees are, ask to stop them, and request a refund.

Is my money in a genuinely dormant, lost account still safe? In the UK, eligible deposits are generally protected up to £85,000 per person, per bank under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Money moved into the unclaimed assets scheme can still be reclaimed via your bank or building society.