Here's What Happens When You Don't Touch Your Bank Account for Years

Some people transact in their bank accounts every week, whether it's taking a withdrawal from a checking account or putting money into a savings account. But it may be that you have an account you don't really use all that much.

Maybe you opened a savings account years ago, as a young adult, to deposit your holiday gift checks. If you've since gotten a job and steady paycheck, you may have opened a checking and savings account at a different bank, leaving your original savings account to largely sit untouched.

Nothing will happen if you don't make any transactions in a bank account for a few weeks. And usually, nothing will come of it if you ignore your bank account for a few months. But if you don't touch your bank account for years, there's a good chance it will be closed -- whether you want that to happen or not.

When there's nothing doing in your bank account

Let's say your only banking activity in the course of a given year is to transfer $5 into your savings account every month. That alone should be enough to keep your account active, which means the bank housing that account should not take any steps to close it out. But if you go years without doing anything in your bank account, then you should expect it to be closed at some point.

And to be clear, even if you have a savings account that's earning interest, those interest credits may not count as activity. Rather, you might need to make deposits or take withdrawals for your account to be considered active.

If your account is inactive for too long, your bank might opt to close your account. Usually, they'll send a letter to your address on record letting you know this.

If you're no longer at that address, though, you may not get that correspondence. And if your bank can't reach you, it can't confirm a way to give you the money you have in your account. In that scenario, you risk having your bank turn your funds over to your state as unclaimed property.

What to do if you think your old bank account was closed

It might dawn on you that you have a savings account with a few hundred dollars in it that you haven't touched in years. If that's the case, call the bank and see what the status of your account is. Your bank should be able to tell you whether the account is still open or not. If it's still open, they should be able to find a way to give you access by verifying your personal information, like your Social Security number.

Otherwise, if your bank account has been closed, your bank probably won't just hand over the money that was left in it upon its closure. You can, however, use a site like MissingMoney to try to reclaim your funds.

It's estimated that 1 in 7 consumers have unclaimed property. So it certainly pays to go after money from a bank account you ignored or forgot about.