Dormancy fee.
In plain English
A dormancy fee, also called an inactivity fee, is charged by some banks, brokerages, or gift-card issuers when an account goes untouched for a set period, often a year or more. It is a way to offset the cost of maintaining accounts nobody uses. For gift cards, federal law limits when and how such fees can apply, generally not before a year of inactivity. Beyond the fee, prolonged inactivity can eventually lead a bank to classify an account as abandoned and turn the balance over to the state, a separate process called escheatment. A single logged-in transaction usually resets the clock.
01Why it matters
A forgotten account can quietly lose money to inactivity fees or even be handed to the state, so knowing they exist is reason enough to keep old accounts active or close them.
02The math, step by step
A brokerage charges a 20 dollar dormancy fee after a year of no activity. An account holding 200 dollars that sits untouched loses 20 dollars a year to the fee, which a single small trade would have avoided.
03What this is NOT
A dormancy fee is NOT the same as escheatment. The fee is a charge for inactivity; escheatment is the later, separate process of an abandoned account's balance being turned over to the state.
04Receipts
Every figure on this page is sourced to a primary document. Tap to open the original.