There Are 2.1 Million Unclaimed Bank Balances In Canada & The Biggest One Is $800,000

Money gets left behind in all kinds of places in Canada, and the Bank of Canada has a site that traces all of it.

If there's a GIC in your name that someone forgot to give you for your birthday, or a bank account your aunt opened for you when you were a kid, the central bank's Unclaimed Balances page will let you trace it and claim it.

You don't have to provide ID or any documentation to use the site (though you'd need some to claim it of course). You can just type in anyone's name and see if there's money waiting for them.

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$888 Million The total amount of unclaimed money

In an email, Narcity spoke with Rebecca Spence, a spokesperson for the Bank of Canada. She says there were about 2.1 million unclaimed balances in Canada the last time they counted at the end of 2019.*

The kinds of money they track includes regular bank accounts, as well as money orders that never got picked up, even positive credit card balances (as if).

Spence told Narcity the total amount that's waiting for the right people is $888 million; the average amount people forget about is about $1,000.

The oldest unclaimed account has been around since 1900.

*This article has been updated.