A man has said he discovered a hidden savings account while he was living on the street and said it gave him the lifeline he needed as he urges everyone to do a five-minute test.
He explained that he discovered a lost bank account, set up by his mother when he was a kid, when he was just 22 and without a home.
The children's savings account was opened through Natwest bank in the UK, but after years of being open, the family had lost all traces of it.
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He decided to try and track it down when he needed it most and it proved successful, giving him the boost he needed to pay for accommodation.
"My mum set it up for me when I was 10-years-old," He told The Mirror.
"She had been paying around £10 a month in for a several years, and when I found it, it had £300 in."
The man, who was homeless at the time, said he was able to use the money to put the deposit down to rent a flat - but it took him four months to get it back. "It was such a lengthy, complicated process to get it back manually through Natwest" he said.
Now, with the launch of new simplified money dashboard Gretel, he's encouraging everyone to check if they could have money in a forgotten bank account.
"It gave me a lifeline," he said.
"You could find a forgotten pension or savings from your great grandparents - the reality is that you have nothing to lose and everything to gain from checking."
Around 19.6million people in the UK are missing out on dormant or unclaimed money, according to figures from Gretel.
Around 44% of UK adults think they may have a lost or dormant account.
Gretel launched in April to help reunite consumers with lost and dormant accounts in the middle of the cost of living crisis.
The site works by partnering with banks and agencies to access the databases of dormant accounts.
Duncan Stevens, chief executive of Gretel said: "Gretel is a huge step forwards in solving the longstanding issue of dormant assets in financial services.
"Knowing the scale of what Gretel can achieve for people in the UK and how we can help people reconnect with their lost savings, pensions and bank accounts at this time.
"We are transforming a process that can take up to three months into three minutes and I am delighted that we have a chance to make a difference in people’s lives."
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