Comptes bancaires oubliés: comment récupérer son argent?
·3 min
The episode begins by introducing the common problem of forgotten bank accounts containing money people don't know exists. Host Stéphanie Collot presents statistics showing 164 million euros were recovered in 2025, an 8% increase from the previous year. She explains that accounts become inactive through various scenarios like childhood savings books, never-closed accounts, or deceased relatives' life insurance. Banks have legal obligations to warn clients about inactive accounts before taking action. After approximately 10 years of inactivity without response, banks transfer the money to the public cash register agency. Since 2017, France has operated Cyclade, a free online service where individuals can search for unclaimed funds. Users create accounts and search by name for themselves or relatives to check if money is owed to them. Last year saw nearly 200,000 requests through this system with average recoveries of 943 euros per beneficiary. In total, 671 million euros were transferred to the cash register this year from over 750,000 forgotten accounts and contracts. Since Cyclade's creation, it has facilitated the return of 1.2 billion euros to individuals. This represents only a portion of the nearly 10 billion euros that banks have transferred to the state system. There's a critical deadline involved - money becomes permanently state property if no one claims it within 20 years. Last year alone, 14 million euros were lost this way when the deadline expired. The episode concludes by encouraging listeners to spend a few minutes checking the system for potential recoveries.
