Do I Need to Close My Australian Bank Account?

Pinekone

[font=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]I had a student travel company set up an Australian bank account on my behalf earlier this year. Now that I'm bank in the UK, I don't need it anymore (although I still have $2 left in it).[/font]

[font=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]Do I have to close the account or can I just leave it?[/font] [font=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]I'm just a bit concerned about the legal side of things.[/font]

[font=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]I've also read about a legislation which lets the Government claim money from inactive accounts. Is this automatic?[/font]

[font=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]Thanks.[/font]

jackbhoy

In short; as long as it does not enter negative balance it doesn't really matter. Most banks have tens, or hundreds of thousands of dormant or inactive accounts on their books. You can contact them and close or just allow the account to become dormant.
There is no legal issues to worry about as you don't owe the bank anything. Like most countries, dormant accounts can be closed and money allocated to feds after a number of years of inactivity. In Aus it is 7 years. 
http://asic.gov.au/regulatory-resources/financial-services/unclaimed-money/

Pinekone

Thank you.