I opened a bank account about 17 years ago when I was at College - it was actually an offer, if you opened the bank account there & then, you got �3 deposited in it to start you off. I didn't ever lodge any more money & only remember getting one bank statement the next year, when the account had �3.08 in it. The bank has since changed name, it was Allied Irish Bank & they are now First Trust, but does anyone know if I would be able to trace the account? I realise it probably isn't worth much & technically it wasn't my money to start with, but it is intriguing me to see how much it would be worth now.
If this was a current account, I doubt if you would get anything like the 5% interest mentioned by rinkytink, so even after 17 years there may be little more in the account than the original �3.
Thewillow, AIB is only the Republic of Ireland & I live in Northern Ireland & the bank is now called First Trust. I don't know if the RoI bank would be any use, but I might try anyway, so thanks.
They should still be able to trace your account. It may well have been closed as dormant after 5 years of inactivity, but they must keep a record of dormant accounts that have been closed (at least in england). I work in the IT department of a large UK bank and we are often being asked to trace accounts from years back.