Inactive bank accounts to be seized in Australia

This story is sensationalism at its best.

The full story is that inactive money is currently held by the banks and transferred to ASIC after 7 years of inactivity. The owner of the account doesn't lose their money, as ASIC advertises the details of all inactive accounts in an effort to locate the owners and return the money to them [1].

The new law changes the period to 3 years. As you can imagine, the banks are spitting chips, since they get 4 years less use out of the money.

One can argue that the change is good for people who have genuinely lost their account, as the inactive account gets visability sooner and is more likely to be reunited with its owner. It will be a nuisance for people who do want to leave an account untouched for a long time, as they will have to interact with the account every three years.

[1] https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/tools-and-resources/find-uncla...

---

edit: spelling

Not 'to be seized' - 'have been seized'

I had an account confiscated -stolen -emptied - whatever you want to call it.

This was an e-trade linked account. They sent me a warning so I wet in and checked that it was active -login, checked the account, regular interest deposits, all good,there.

Wrong.

I had to make a personal withdrawal or deposit in order to 'activate' the account or it was deemed inactive. All because I haven't bought/sold anything for 3 years in that particular account ( though I have in other accounts in the same e-trade account)

Now I have to apply to a govnemrnt agency to get my money back, the wait time is 6 weeks plus.

It's absurd, shocking, disgusting.

In the news is a pensioner who had been saving up for medical bills. Goes into hospital for major surgery, comes out afterwards and finds all his saving gone $22k.

The inactive period is 3 years. In other words, since the LOST finale aired. It's not that long.

Most countries have a provision to seize unclaimed monies. But three years? What on earth is the justification? Because they can't balance a budget?

If the government came into your house and took any jewelry that you hadn't worn in three years, most people would revolt. But apparently. Only in the bank is use it or lose it. So much for savings being the necessary per-requisite for capital formation.

/rant

For what? The current treasurer and government disgust me.

To clarify, seizing of "inactive" funds already occurs -- the change next week shortens the timeframe from 7 years inactivity to 3 years. The money can be subsequently reclaimed through tedious paperwork. This is pretty standard stuff internationally speaking (U.S. seems to have a timeframe of 3-5 years depending on the state, U.K. is 15 years, Canada has a more generous timeframe of 30 years, or 100 years for amounts over a grand!).

The responsible thing for your bank to do would be to notify you at the 35-month period. Not much good if you don't keep your contact details up to date, but if it's something like a investment or trust account then that might be the one address you'd like to try to keep accurate. THIS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE SOUND FINANCIAL ADVICE, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO KEEP YOUR BANK STATEMENTS FORWARDING TO THAT EXPIRED P.O. BOX AT YOUR ALMA MATER

Seizing money out of a customer's bank account is really quite reprehensible. It's quite easy to imagine a situation in which someone has a savings account for a specific purpose that they have the discipline to not touch (e.g. an "oh shit" fund), and then suddenly find that money has been stolen one morning by the government. Indeed, I've had a number of savings accounts that have been for specific purposes that have neither grown nor shrunk, untouched for years because there has been no necessity.

The only situation I can think of in which it's somewhat ok for the government to raid a citizen's bank account is if the customer has been uncontactable for a number of years and cannot be found after a diligent search. Bar this, it's just theft.

The worst part of the legislation is that interest and fees are not considered "using" the account.

*You must physically deposit or withdraw funds from the account.

What happens when you are in prison or a coma for over three years? Once you are back, do you have to go through the several-month-long process recovery process? How do you pay the bills during that time? Do they pay you interest if you successfully reclaim the money?

What's the point of this legislation anyway?

Lets see them try to seize inactive Bitcoins.....

Money now has an expiration date, like air miles?

Is this a karma grab? This was doing the rounds online shortly after it was announced in February. Anyway it seems likely to only affect people who are wealthy enough to have large reserves of cash with nothing happening to it. When you think about it, most people only have 1 or 2 accounts. And these accounts usually have fairly regular activity occurring.