Inactive bank accounts: the deadlines to be respected for the restitution of the sums

You may have, without realizing it, set aside some of your savings. Indeed, many French people are in possession of sums of which they do not even suspect the existence. Old savings accounts or bank accounts that have sunk into oblivion: these are the mechanisms of the “loss” of money for some customers of French banks.

The sums involved are considerable! Indeed, at the end of 2021 nearly 6.4 billion euros were still waiting to be claimed. At the same time, since 2017 a total of half a billion euros has been returned to wise people who undertook to double-check if they were not in possession of a nest egg without knowing it. However, it is important to act as soon as possible! Indeed, the sums forgotten on these so-called “inactive” accounts will not wait for you forever, as stated on the official website of the Ministry of Economy.

Indeed, if you have truly forgotten a sum of money placed in any bank, the sum is certainly dozing in an account considered inactive. There are two criteria that qualify an account as inactive: first, a complete absence of activity or transaction on the account for 12 consecutive months.

Note that transactions initiated by the bank are not taken into account here. In addition, an account can only be qualified as inactive if the holder of said account does not contact his bank during these same 12 consecutive months of inactivity.

Attention ! If you are the holder of such an account, your money could slip through your fingers if you do not react quickly enough.

Before being definitively transferred to the state coffers, your money will be transferred to the Caisse des Dépôts. Time limits are associated with both stages of this process. First of all, a savings account or product will be kept for 10 years by the bank. Note that this term is 20 years if it concerns a popular savings account. After this period, the account or passbook is closed and its content is transferred to the famous Caisse des Dépôts.

From this moment, the sums are kept for 20 additional years. It is then still possible to recover it. At the end of this deadline, your money will be returned to the State. There are different steps to follow in order to recover your assets, depending on the situation and the number of years that have elapsed.

During the first 10 years of inactivity of the account or the savings account (or 20 years for a PEL), it is still possible to recover your money by contacting the financial institution, the bank therefore, in charge of the account or the savings product. . Once the account or passbook has been closed and its contents transferred to Caisse des Dépôts, the procedure is different.

Indeed, there is no longer any financial institution to contact, apart from the Caisse des Dépôts. In order to facilitate the restitution of these sums, a very easy-to-use online platform has been made available to the population. From the name of Ciclade, it allows you, using the intelligence of some information, to recover what is due to you. The platform in question also allows you to know if you are the proud owner of a forgotten sum!