All of the American folks here complain how difficult it is to open a Swiss bank account. But as a Swiss who lived in a US for a year, my Bank of America account although it did have a few thousand dollars was inactive for 3 years, and they closed it and transferred the balance to NY state. Apparently this is the pathetic US law to push dormant account funds towards State funds for use.
The bank told me they tried to contact me by sending post to my US address. I told them its not the 17th century that you are sending post. An email, SMS or other media channel communication is mandatory before you do such an act. US is still living in the middle ages in terms of banking and still pay out cheques. Who the hell uses cheques in 2025? People are talking about crypto now adays and digital currencies. There are Neo banks now who understand customers and residence location isn’t an issue anymore.
In Switzerland I checked, this can happen after 10 years of account inactivity, but this is also not a hard and fast rule. I don’t blame the US banks as this is regulated by US State and Federal policies, and the US government policies aim at collecting unused funds and redirecting them towards their own needs, good way of getting money from people.
Plus the process to reclaim those funds is long and chaotic. Simple conclusion is that, the US is good at stealing people’s money and then it makes it more difficult and costly to recover it. So all Americans who complain they have issues with Swiss banks, please read this post clearly and understand how the US government treats non-US domiciled / non-US citizens to steal their money.
Had similar experience with BOA. The credit union I used in the US did not deactivate my account due to inactivity for at least 7 years … BOA is a pirate …
Post is fine, not everyone wants that sort of message via phone or emails. Question is why didn’t you update your address with them when you left the States?
I had a sort of similar situation, albeit with the contents of a safety deposit box rather than a bank account.
Years, and three bank mergers, had passed since I checked on that box. When I finally did I was surprised to learn that it had been declared dormant and the contents transferred to the state of Illinois. We were still paying the box fees, but some how the connection got ‘lost’ in one or other of the bank mergers, and at some point the box was declared dormant.
However, reclaiming the contents was easy peasy. The new bank gave me a form verifying when the transfer happened, and pointed me to the online address of the relevant department at the state of Illinois website.
Filled out a claim form on the state website, and in a short time we were told the contents of the box would be sent to us. Since I was in Switzerland I had the package sent to a family member stateside - I can’t remember if that was for my convenience or if sending outside the country was a problem. I’d guess it might be even easier with funds rather than ‘stuff’.
Truly, reclamation was a walk in the park. Nothing complicated, at least in the state of Illinois.
If you haven’t started the reclamation process, you might be surprised at how easy it can be. The bank should be able to help you get started.
In Switzerland it is 61 years (after 61 years any account balances are lost). After 10 years the banks will move your account off the live system, meaning the account has to be re-activated by providing passport copies etc in order to be used again.