When, at 17, Hélène opened her Livret A account at the Caisse d’Epargne de Marmande, she probably did not imagine having to go looking for it sixty years later… However, that is what happened to her there a few months. “In 1997, I had 400 francs on it. At that time…
When, at 17, Hélène opened her Livret A account at the Caisse d’Epargne de Marmande, she probably did not imagine having to go looking for it sixty years later… However, that is what happened to her there a few months. “In 1997, I had 400 francs on it. At that time, I got a checking account and a card account with them. Over the years, I didn’t worry about its future but when I learned that interest had increased, last January, I wanted to know where I stood,” she admits.
Funds transferred?
La Marmandaise recognizes it: she was not careful in 2016, when the Eckert law came into force. Since this date, banks and insurance companies must annually identify inactive accounts in order to systematically remind their holders of their existence. And if inactivity continues despite a reminder letter from the establishment, the account is closed and the balance transferred to the Caisse des Dépôts.
Problem is, when she goes or writes to her bank, no one knows who closed Hélène’s savings account. So, the former medical secretary wrote to the Caisse des Dépôts. Clear response in mid-April: no trace of his savings account in their tablets either.
“No one warned me. If that had been the case, I wouldn’t be here today fighting. My money disappeared into thin air and I was told that I would never know where it was. Banks cannot be trusted. They destroy all the archives and we no longer have any proof,” thunders the septuagenarian, letters of complaint in hand.
If her complaint was not taken up by the Marmande gendarmerie at the beginning of May, Hélène does not intend to stop there: she has an appointment with a justice conciliator on May 16. Even if the amount of his savings account seems, today, derisory. “No matter, I’m doing this on principle, to prove there was a mistake on their part and to prevent other elderly people from being scammed. » According to a banker from the department, who prefers to remain anonymous, it is possible that after thirty years of inactivity of his savings account, the funds have landed at the Caisse des Dépôts, without the holder being able to recover them.
