RBI Guidelines on Unclaimed Deposits- Step-by-Step Guide to Claim Money Through the UDGAM Portal

A large number of rupees have been left unclaimed in savings accounts, current accounts, and fixed deposits at various Indian banks due to forgetfulness, changed addresses, or the nominees’ lack of knowledge of these accounts.

To facilitate the search for the unclaimed amount, the Reserve Bank of India developed the UDGAM Portal (Unclaimed Deposits – Gateway to Access Information). This portal helps the user look up unclaimed deposits in different banks at one place.

What Are Unclaimed Deposits?

Unclaimed deposits refer to funds that remain in savings, current, or fixed deposits for more than 10 years without any activity. At the end of the period of 10 years, banks transfer the balance of such accounts into the Depositors Education & Awareness (DEA) fund of the RBI.

It is noteworthy that depositing the amount into the DEA fund does not imply that depositors lose their rights to lay claims on the account balance.

What Is the UDGAM Portal?

The RBI UDGAM portal is a unified online portal created by the Reserve Bank of India to help customers trace their unclaimed deposits maintained by participating banks.

Rather than approaching different bank branches separately, customers can look for their dormant accounts in one single place with basic information such as their names.

As per the figures released by the government, the portal now comprises approximately 30 banks, accounting for almost 90% of unclaimed deposits and has garnered millions of users.

Who Can Use the Portal?

Individuals who believe that they or their deceased relative could have a dormant bank account or fixed deposit account can make use of this portal.

Nominees, legal heirs, and other authorized individuals can find out more about their eligible fixed deposits prior to visiting the respective bank.

Step-by-Step Guide to Search for Unclaimed Deposits

The procedure starts with the visit of the UDGAM portal of the RBI and making yourself registered with your name and mobile number. Verification of your mobile number via OTP will help you to make a password for activation of your account.

Once the registration process is completed, login to the portal with your mobile number, password, captcha, and OTP verification.

After you have logged in, choose the bank from where you want to look out. Provide the name of the account holder that is compulsory along with the other optional information like PAN, Date of Birth, Voter ID, Driving License Number, Passport Number, or Account Number.

If any match found with the eligible criteria, the portal will provide bank details and Unclaimed Deposit Reference Number (UDRN).

How to Claim Your Money

Having found the account on the UDGAM Portal is not sufficient enough for processing the payment.

Once the deposit is found, the customer needs to get in touch with the respective bank and provide all the relevant claim documents.

The bank will require identity proof, address proof, KYC documentation, and other documents as necessary. In case the account holder is no more, nominees and heirs can provide all the relevant succession documents.

Upon confirmation, the bank then processes the claim and provides the legitimate amount of the money to the person concerned.

Why the RBI Introduced the UDGAM Portal

The launch of this portal was aimed at easing the process of searching for dormant deposits and increasing transparency.

Before this measure, customers had to physically go to individual banks in order to find out if there were any dormant deposits under their names. Now that customers can conduct one search in one place, this saves time.

This will also help in lowering the amount of unclaimed deposits being transferred to the DEA Fund.

Safety Tips While Using the Portal

UDGAM Portal can be accessed by everyone without any charges. RBI does not permit the agents and third parties to retrieve any unclaimed deposits from the customers on payment basis.

Customers are advised to visit only the UDGAM official website and refrain from giving their OTP or banking password to anyone who claims that he will release their funds on payment basis.

Why You Should Check Today

Many individuals are often unknowingly leaving behind inactive savings bank account, fixed deposits, salary accounts, or deposits made in the past years.

Going through the UDGAM portal will take you no more than a few minutes and may actually save you some money that is yours!

Conclusion

It has become really easy to find out the unclaimed bank deposits in many banks using the RBI UDGAM Portal. Although the portal is just limited to finding out about the unclaimed deposits, it makes the process of locating the deposits very easy.

In case you feel that there is some forgotten account or unclaimed fixed deposits of yours or any other member in your family, then searching on the RBI UDGAM Portal will be worthwhile.

Your bank deposit has not gone anywhere, but it may just be awaiting discovery through the RBI UDGAM Portal.

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