Give advance warning of bank account closures

Recently, my aged parents and I received a letter stating that our bank account had been closed.

When I did a check, I discovered that it is a common practice to close bank accounts that are inactive for 12 months.

We had to go down to the bank personally and make a transaction to reactivate the account.

This caused much inconvenience, especially to the elderly who may have problems walking and travelling.

While I understand the need to close accounts for security reasons, I hope the banks will review their procedure.

Perhaps, instead of sending a letter after the account has been closed, the banks could send a notice a month in advance, so the account holder can take steps to prevent the closure.

The operational cost of sending the letter is the same, but it would save the man-hours needed to reactivate the account.

It also saves the account holder time, as he can just do a transaction over the Internet or at the cash deposit machines instead.