Bank accounts are parts of your identity, and as they belong to you, you must be responsible for them. For reasons such as the fraudulent activities of individuals and institutions, you might not be aware of some bank accounts existing in your name.

Some other reasons might include bank accounts your parents opened for you at a younger age, which you aren’t aware of after their demise.

It could also be an inheritance set up by your family, or maybe it’s just an account that you lost track of, intended to close but forget, etc. 

How do I Find banks Accounts in My Name?

You can check for bank accounts in your name through bank statements, credit reports, and online. However, while you can also check using your social security number, you will have to involve the help of legal and banking services.

The fact is that as bank accounts are your identity and responsibilities, you should track, manage and be accountable for the financial activities that go on them.

It may be a savings account set up by your parents or your spouse. It can also be a case of identity thieves looking to siphon money from your other bank accounts, etc.

Find Bank Accounts Using Credit Reports

Financial experts and bankers also urge that you, your friends, and your family stay on top of your finances and banking.

If not, identity thieves might open bank accounts and credit card accounts in your name, keep bouncing checks and overdrafts in the accounts at your cost.

To find bank accounts in your name using credit report, follow these steps:

1. With a web browser, log on to the Annualcreditreport.com and request a credit report from the three best credit reporting agencies; Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
2. Use the drop-down to narrow down to your state, then click ‘request.’
3. Enter your personal information on the page that comes up and click ‘continue.’
4. After this, the website will offer you three separate credit reports from the three agencies for free.
5. All you have to do is to select each of them and request a credit report easily.
6. Scroll through the list of accounts from each agency and check out the open and closed accounts.
7. Among the open accounts, look out for accounts you don’t know about.

These open accounts will include any bank account that you don’t know of but still in operation.

It is also necessary that you know what’s in the credit report, like how eligible for loans and other benefits you are, how your incomes and expenses are being spent, protect yourself from fraudulent activities.

It will also help prevent any further damage that may be due to fraudsters operating bank accounts under your name.

Look for Bank Statements

Though you can’t directly see a list of bank accounts in your name with a bank statement, a bank statement will offer you one of the best options for tracking your finances.

You can check for any account with links to that particular account related to the bank statement. Knowing how to look for bank accounts in bank statements is a prerequisite in identifying linked accounts.

You can request a bank statement through a telephone call, online, or with a visit to your bank branch. 

As many people access their bank statements online nowadays, let’s look at the steps you can use to check for linked accounts in a bank statement.

1. Log in to your bank app or bank website.
2. Check out your bank’s official bank statement repository or chat up the customer support and request the bank statements.
3. Choose the period of transactions you want to review. 
4. Gently Scroll through the statement on your mobile devices, desktop or print it out for more eagle-eye analysis.
5. Look out for linked accounts.
6. Under linked accounts, look out for bank accounts or card accounts that you do not know of.

If you find any, then you have the bank accounts in your name that you don’t know to exist.

National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators

In an era where almost all banking and payment activities are online, you can easily search through some credible websites for the best information on back accounts in your name.

The NAUPA is a national network that collects records from all 50 states of unclaimed benefits.

1. Go to NAUPA’s official website for unclaimed money in bank accounts in your name.
2. On the website, look for links to each state’s unclaimed property program.
3. Narrow down to states you have resided and have relations or families at.
4. Click on the state to be directed to its official NAUPA website. 
5. Now on the website, search using your maiden’s name and current name.
6. Try different search queries, changing the placement of your names, and full the initials of your first names and that of your full names.
7. You’ll get to see the list of the bank accounts in your names show up, any unclaimed benefits, and in some cases, investments.
8. Distinguish between the open and the closed accounts.
9. Check out for the ones you know of, but beware that these bank accounts will be any of the different bank accounts such as Checking accounts and savings accounts.

After you must have excluded the bank accounts you known of, check out for both open and closed bank accounts left in the list. If you find any bank account that is still open that you do not know of, then you have – bank account in your name.

Other places that you should check online include:

• The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation for any pension money that is unclaimed.
• The IRS’s website for any undeliverable tax refunds.
• The U.S. Treasury Hunt for savings bonds that are unclaimed, registered Treasury notes, or Treasury bonds.
• Bank accounts, unclaimed benefits, and investments in your name can be in any of these platforms, so make sure to check them out.

Ask Your Family

Bank accounts, investments in assets, and real estates are examples of some things that family and friends do without your knowledge. In some cases, it may be an inheritance from an uncle, grandparents, or your parents that nobody remembers.

Getting to know from parents or other family members if there is any bank account in your name can involve any of the following:

1. Check out their bank statements, especially your parents’.
2. Search for recurring payments to investments that might link to a bank account in your name.
3. Ask them if they had invested on your behalf or opened a savings bank account for you sometime in the past.
4. This questioning might help trigger their memory to remember if they had any of such investments.
5. Ask their lawyers. Your patents’ lawyer is an expert who would if your parents had made any of such investments.
6. While your parents may forget these investments or bank accounts, lawyers usually don’t.
7. Check online with the NAUPA website of the state where they reside.
8. Check the U.S. Treasury hunt for any investment your parents or family members might have made on your behalf.
9. The pension benefit is another good place to check. Here, you’ll get to know if they had invested their pension or left it for you.
10. Check online for savings of IRS tax refunds for any tax refund your parents may have secured in a bank account or card in your name.

Search by Social Security Number

The social security number has many capabilities, including tracking or seeking out most of your financial information. You can use it to track some things such as your financial investment, assets, and bank accounts.

You cannot easily check for bank accounts in your name with the social security number yourself as it is way more complex. 

To search for bank accounts in your name using your social security number, you need the help of some professional services, investigators, legal and banking agencies.

Ensure to also check out credit cards from payment platforms such as emerald cards, PayPal, and others, and you’ll be amazed at the accounts you might see.

What Can I do to Find Bank Accounts in My Name?

You can find bank accounts in your name using credit reports and bank statements. Alternatively, you can use NAUPA’s website to search for unclaimed money in a bank account.

It is quite common that you may have inheritance money or investment under your name without your knowledge. You can ask your family and relatives to see if such assets exist.

Using Social Security number to find a bank account under your name is a bit more complicated. This method is not as popular because you may need to invest some money to hire legal professionals and private investigators and end up not finding anything.