Reading a report on how much of our money the government had snaffled from "inactive accounts", I decided to check if I actually knew what constituted an inactive account.

I did not.

I have a couple of offset accounts. They are attached to my cheque account, & appear on the same statement, are used less frequently, & therefor actually earn some interest.

It used to be 10%, although it is now down to about 3.1% against 3.6% for a term deposit. It is worth the lower earning to me to have the money available instantly in any emergency.

When I enquired I discovered these are considered separate accounts for the inactive account legislation, & the cash could be taken by the government as such.

To be active a withdrawal must be made from the account, deposits do not make an account "active".

So folks, if you have a little rainy day money sitting in a readily available account, be damn careful to take a few bucks out of it on a regular basis. You can actually put it back in almost immediately, but you need to take some out.

Talk about sneaky

Hasbeen get your money out of managed super funds. Do SMSF and buy things of value that people can use. Residential land is way over valued. The next big collapse will happen within the next year. Do not trust the banks or the Govt as they work together.

Dear Hasbeen,

<<be damn careful to take a few bucks out of it on a regular basis.>>

Careful - Some saving accounts get no (or little) interest in any month when a withdrawal was made.

The last time I checked the "Terms and Conditions", an account can also be kept active simply by calling the bank and telling them that you still use it.

Mentioning those "Terms and Conditions", the banks are one of the last customers of Australia Post, having by law to send their customers heaps of papers that go straight in the recycling-bin, unread. No amount of pleading would help prevent that waste as the *law* tells them to do so even when it's neither in their interest nor in the customer's. Australians in general are such sheep - if the law tells them something, they say (and probably even believe) that they "cannot" do otherwise. Would I go to prison one day for not keeping those papers?

Dear Arjay,

If a monetary collapse is to occur, do you think government will continue to respect the SMSF structure?

It is legalised theft. Very callous and sly and sure to trap the young, old and vulnerable.

As such, it would have been an 'initiative' of the Gillard+Greens government, right?

I was told you can claim it back, but the bank could not give me a time limit to how long after it is taken this would apply.

They suggested it would take 2 to 3 months to actually get money back in your account.

Yuyutsu they did not give me the option of advising the account was active.

Don't have any of them Arjay. In these days of virtually no interest, I'm a big fan of the shiny yellow stuff.

The HSBC in Great Britain wants reasons from depositors withdrawing just $3000.00 This looks like a banking crisis happening soon. Joe Hockey at the last G20 approved the "bail in" scam ie the conversion of deposits to bank shares as in Cyprus.

Hasbeen you are on the right track.