One in seven people forget to give their financial providers a forwarding address when they move home, according to a survey commissioned by National Savings and Investments.

The survey, conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres in April, found that a growing number of the 13% of people that move each year are losing touch with their money.

As NSI Commercial Director Gill Cattanach explained: "Moving home is so stressful that a significant number of British savers and investors forget their money".

In November 2001, National Savings and Investments launched a free of charge tracing service, reuniting savers with �2 million of their lost money in the first six months.

The lost accounts are mainly National Savings certificates and premium bonds.

In one case the holder of an old savings certificate had passed away but through the tracing service their next of kin was reunited with the grand sum of �216,000.

According to Paul Knight of National Savings, there has been 1855 successful searches totalling over �2 million pounds and 73 individuals have been reunited with more than �10,000 each.

The largest outstanding premium bond is �25,000. National Savings do not know where that holder is but believe they have moved to Canada. "If you have a relative in Canada, it could be them" says Paul Knight.

Unclaimed money will remain the property of the individual concerned. "There will never be any attempt to pass that money away and stop it going to a legitimate holder" says Paul Knight.

When he spoke to Money Box in November Paul Knight said that there was over �1.5 billion pounds in unclaimed money, so there is still some way to go.

But he insists: "We are committed to trying to reunite people with their money".

How to initiate a trace

To initiate a trace, customers should complete the Tracing Service request form. You can obtain the form in a number of ways:

by downloading the form from the

NSI website

by calling the NSI Customer enquiry line on 0845 964 5000

by writing to National Savings, FREEPOST BJ2092, Blackpool, FY3 9XR

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