FDIC confiscates inactive accounts

I have 2 bank accounts. I was not satisfied with the service at that bank
and over a year ago I opened another account with another bank. That in
it self was a huge pain in the butt. I kept the 1st account because it is
the only bank account that has a signature card on file for Mary and I
will not know if or when I will ever need it because Mary cannot sign a
signature card and I cannot sign one for her. I recently received a
letter from that bank with instructions that I did not quite understand so
I went there to have them explain what it meant. The person told me that
the account was inactive for almost a year and if I did not do something
to keep it active by January 8, 2010 the account would be closed BY LAW
and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation would take the money and I
would never get it back! I asked what I had to do to keep it open and she
said that if I made a deposit or withdrawal before January 8, 2010 and it
would remain an active bank checking account for another year.

I never heard of such a thing. She went on to say that lots of people
fall into the same trap, especially older people who see a letter come
from the bank, think it is some piece of junk mail and throw the letter
away only to find out that they no longer have the money. As a result, I
put $20 in the account to keep it active. She suggested that I make a
deposit or withdrawal in any amount every so often just to keep extending
the 1 year dead line.

Please do not fall into that trap and keep your account active or close
it.

Also, I have sent this e-mail to every person on my mail list so please do
not respond or I will have a ton of responses to answer and I do not have
time for that.

Be assured that tomorrow there will be letters going to my congressman and
senators asking why this is happening and nobody seems to know about it.