NS&I can’t find the account I opened for my goddaughter 18 years ago – is the £2000 lost forever?

I opened an NS&I account for my goddaughter when she was born and have been paying a small amount of money each month for the last 18 years by standing order into what I thought was the NS&I account.

She recently turned 18, but to my horror, when I called NS&I to find out how to withdraw the money so I could give her a cheque for her birthday, NS&I told me they couldn’t trace the account.

I checked an online sort code checker and the sort code for the account I have been sending money to each month appears to match the NS&I sort code.

But NS&I insisted the account he had been sending money to did not fall within its sort codes.

Since no money was ever sent or bounced back to my account, I assumed, obviously incorrectly, that everything was fine and the money was going into their NS&I account.

I only transferred a little each month, but over 18 years that amount has built up to around £2000, which would help my goddaughter enormously with her university expenses when she goes next year.

My goddaughter has tried the lost account process but we have been told there is no account.

NS&I customer service has not been very helpful and we don’t know what to do now. Is the money lost forever?

Helen Kirrane from This is Money responds: What was intended to be a thoughtful gift for her goddaughter’s future has ended in a wild goose chase.

I have to admit it’s been a mind-boggling mix trying to figure it out with so many twists and turns.

He told me that when he opened the NS&I account in October 2006, it started with a standing order of £5 a month.

Contributions were increased by £1 each year, up to £10, where they remained until the pandemic in 2020. They fluctuated to around £5 a month after the pandemic until September 2023.

Based on this, around £1,680 has been paid into the account, which is expected to be worth £2,000 from investment gains over the past 18 years.

First of all, I want to assure you that you have not been sending the money to the wrong account or to a random bank account.

NS&I has confirmed that there is an NS&I account in the name of your goddaughter and that she has been receiving her funds into it for the past 18 years.

The account you opened for your goddaughter was an Investment Account that was a postal account and therefore only had the option of being managed by mail.

An NS&I spokesperson responded: We can confirm that the client’s monthly funds have been received regularly and deposited into his account.

The customer provided us with her address in November 2015, which remains registered on her account.

Annual statements, including the most recent one, have been sent to this address. If the customer has changed their address or is not receiving statements, we recommend that they contact us to confirm their current address and request a statement.

Helen Kirrane answers: At some point over the years, her goddaughter moved house and NS&I told me the last record of an address they had for her was in 2015.

That could explain why NS&I were unable to trace the account when she provided them with her goddaughter’s current address.

The last address NS&I had on record for your goddaughter was from 2015 and this is where NS&I has been sending your correspondence ever since.

Another area of ​​confusion is that once a child turns 16, they can manage their own NS&I account.

Many years ago, NS&I asked you to provide details of your goddaughter’s mother, which you did, leading you to believe that the account was in her mother’s name. However, when you tried to locate the account, NS&I told you that the account would be in your goddaughter’s name.

Her goddaughter had already moved house when NS&I sent the letters notifying her that the account was now in her name and she would not have received the letter informing her of this.

An NS&I spokesperson responded: When a child turns 16, they begin managing their own Investment Account and a notification of this was sent to the client by post in September 2021.

Helen Kirrane answers: Despite her best efforts, her goddaughter found it difficult to contact NS&I to update her address with NS&I.

NS&I told me that their customer service team would walk her through a step-by-step process on how to access her account and update her original address from 2015.

To complicate matters further, NS&I require the change to be made in writing with verification of your signature.

An NS&I spokesperson responded: Our records indicate that we received an electronic request for a change of address from the customer on May 22, 2024. However, since the request was not signed, we requested a signature.

On June 6, 2024, we received the signature, but the date of birth provided did not match our records, so we requested confirmation of her date of birth. This was resolved on June 20, 2024, and the address was updated.

We have not yet received a completed refund form from the customer so we are in the process of contacting her directly to allow this to be done and the refund issued.