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I once had a fintech account with a company that is EU regulated. It was a long time ago and I used it for a couple transactions that resulted in a 0.27 Eur dus

by csomar 1y ago

I once had a fintech account with a company that is EU regulated. It was a long time ago and I used it for a couple transactions that resulted in a 0.27 Eur dust balance. I didn't use it after that and a couple years before Covid they decided they need more KYC to keep the account active and I just ignored them. To this day I still get emails about my remaining balance roughly every quarter. During this time (7 years!), I had multiple exchanges with support guys and one of them escalated. The back office guy explained that in order to access/transfer my balance, I need to do as much KYC as if I was opening a new fresh account. He also made me understand that there is a 2 Euro fee to move my 0.27 Euro balance. So there we have it. Apparently, they can't close the account because it has a balance in it. And also they can't transfer the balance without going through KYC. As if all of that matter, it makes no financial sense for me to claim the remaining balance. Regulatory dystopia at full display.

mytailorisrich 1y ago
They can close it, banks have no problem closing accounts with residual balances and they just keep the money if normal fees exceed the balance. Too much time is wasted discussing with various bots and call centre-based "customer support" these days. Normal procedure is/was to send a letter instructing them to close the account and to let them deal with it.
- stephen_g 1y ago
  In my country (Australia) unclaimed money is surrendered to a department of the Federal Government and held in trust, and people can claim it back if they can prove it’s theirs (usually the bank has your name and tax file number so it’s not at all difficult). So there’s no impediment here to closing accounts after a few years of inactivity, whatever the balance (if it’s positive) it just has to be sent there.

by csomar 1y ago

mytailorisrich 1y ago

They can close it, banks have no problem closing accounts with residual balances and they just keep the money if normal fees exceed the balance. Too much time is wasted discussing with various bots and call centre-based "customer support" these days. Normal procedure is/was to send a letter instructing them to close the account and to let them deal with it.

stephen_g 1y ago
In my country (Australia) unclaimed money is surrendered to a department of the Federal Government and held in trust, and people can claim it back if they can prove it’s theirs (usually the bank has your name and tax file number so it’s not at all difficult). So there’s no impediment here to closing accounts after a few years of inactivity, whatever the balance (if it’s positive) it just has to be sent there.