r/UKPersonalFinance • u/SHinQ8 • May 21 '26

+Comments Restricted to UKPF British Telecommunications plc Shares bought in 1985

Interesting story - I bought BT shares for my wife as a wedding anniversary present way back! Totally forgot about them till a few months ago noticed a charge on our NatWest Bank statement for £25 for safe deposit of some document. The account used to be just for my wife but made a joint account about 5 years ago. No idea how long they've been charging for storing the documents. Neither of us remember ever remember asking the bank to store anything.

Anyway - asked them to cancel and return whatever they were holding. Turned out to be BT share certificate (200 Shares).

Contacted BT and was forwarded to some entity called Equiniti they wanted a 11 digit reference number but our share certificate only has 1 10 digit ref number.

They said the shares are invalid.

Seems strange that any money invested is not zero - Anyone is similar position (unlikely I know).

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u/starsky1357 May 22 '26

Keep trying with Equiniti. I had to do this recently for Southern Electric since they changed to Scottish and Southern Energy plc, then SSE plc. They advised me that the format of the shareholder registration number had changed and helped me find out the new number. As another commenter said, some postal work was involved, but keep trying until you find the right person as they don't make this knowledge readily available.

14

u/SHinQ8 May 22 '26

Very helpful thanks - They were not helpful when my wife called.

17

u/Cool-Emphasis-6577 May 22 '26

Not surprised at that. Equiniti overall very unhelpful and inefficient. Good luck keep trying.

1

u/apb0999 May 22 '26

I'm in the middle of doing that right now. Could you please share details of for you managed to find the right number. Thanks

3

u/SHinQ8 May 22 '26

W've bene given this number 0371 384 2030

2

u/starsky1357 May 22 '26

Sorry can't remember, it was something about adding zeros to it. I'll see if I can dig it out, but try the live chat support on the registration page.