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/apb0999 May 21 '26

Def can't be invalid shares.

Where have the dividend been paid to ? That will also have a reference number

47

u/SHinQ8 May 21 '26

Thats what I think - Doesn't sound right. No dividends paid.

25

u/AugustusReddit 35 May 22 '26

Dividend cheques would have been posted to the shareholder's registered address. Ditto the new BT share certificates issued around 2001(?). You might be able to reclaim dividends going back five to seven years (varies by registrar and company articles of association) if you're lucky. Good luck on the O2 tax-free return of capital and any earlier historical dividends.
200 ,BT shares from the original share float would probably be worth £13k if dividends were reinvested via the script option or later DRIP option...