Lately we here at ClockWorkAccounting.com have become interested in the relatively unknown topic of bank account searches. We stumbled upon it in the normal course of business and thought that more of our readers would want to know about it. We’ll start out by providing you the basics and would hope that if you are really interested in some form of bank account asset search that you would consult with a lawyer. As a disclaimer, this is one of those sensitive areas where we could get into trouble if people misunderstand what we are providing here. This is simply an interesting article on the subject and should not be relied upon heavily when making critical decisions.
There are a few reasons a person would want to do a bank accounts search. One reason you may want to know someone else’s assets is because you took them to court and a civil judge found the other person guilty. In other words they are now obligated to pay you a certain amount of money according to the courts. The person owing money may claim that they have none and they may attempt to hide their assets. In this case you will want to work with the courts and especially a civil judgment creditor. You will want to work with a lawyer as well. The truth is that in all but the most extreme cases, companies that perform asset searches will only perform their services for lawyers or other authorized civil agents. This makes a lot of sense, because otherwise we would have curious people checking each other’s bank accounts every day.
Another reason a person may want to perform asset searches is because they are an officer of a company and they want to pre-screen the organizations who owe them money before filing a civil judgment. In this case, asset searching companies will often perform searches, but again only if they are working with a registered lawyer.
A less-common but perhaps more popular reason to perform these types of searches is that you have unclaimed money at a bank. The idea is that you or a close relative has a lost bank account somewhere and you simply need to find it in order to claim your money.
Some reasons a bank account may be considered abandoned include a failure to communicate with an interest in the account, not making a deposit or withdrawal for an extended period of time, mail to your address is returned to sender. The basic idea is that you may have an abandoned bank account if the bank has been trying to tell you about the money for a long time, but you have not responded.
As you might expect, this type of thing is not very common. People care a lot about money and are not prone to forget about large chunks of it. However in some situations, money and bank accounts are lost. This could be because of the death of a family member, the closure of a bank, or a change in address without updating the contact information. If something like has happened to you, then there are some services that offer a bank account search. You can find them by browsing the net.
We stumbled across a website that claims they will perform these kind of services (unclaimed.com). However, our internal radars were beeping loudly and this looked like an easy way to take $20 from people who are simply curious. Be very wary of sites that offer to do a bank account search without the use of a lawyer. At best this site will charge you the $20 they say and at worst they could take your credit card information. Even if you are looking for one of your long lost bank accounts, we would recommend talking with a banker and/or a lawyer before trying one of these sites.
In summary, there are multiple reasons to perform bank account searches; you may need information on a debtor, or you may be looking for one of your own lost accounts. In all but the rarest of cases you will need a lawyer to perform these searches. Be careful when trying a bank account search service when a lawyer is not involved.
