When you are practicing social distancing and self-isolation, finding new pandemic hobbies is one way to keep positive.
One exciting option I used was finding unclaimed assets that were owed to us – 10 minutes of effort yielded $82.20.
Maybe you have some free money out there with your name on it!
Unclaimed Assets
Every State maintains a database of unclaimed assets – money whose rightful owner cannot be located.
My experience began on a non-government website run by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.
Sounds like something promoted by a guy in an ill-fitting suit on late night television, no?
1 in 10 has unclaimed property!
$3,000,000,000 returned by states annually!
Fortunately this page just sends you to the State website – in our case to the Washington State Department of Revenue Unclaimed Property page. (although you could have unclaimed property in any State, even those you never lived in.) I just simply clicked on WA State on the map.
Search by State on unclaimed.org – National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators
The State budget for unclaimed assets web page building is obviously low… but it works – a quick search by name produced 2 results.
WA State unclaimed property search
Clicking on the Pursue Claim button required I create a login with the Department of Revenue and upload proof that I was indeed the correct person – I just used a photo of my driver’s license.
My Unclaimed Property details (modified to remove incriminating information)
The 2 claims I filed were for a payment of $59.62 from a car insurance company and $22.50 from an Internet Servicer Provider. I have no idea when or why these companies owed us money.
In addition to the 2 claims I filed, the state found 3 more totaling $0.08! This will definitely help with any economic anxiety we may have been experiencing.
It looks like I filed the claims on April 16th and they were processed on May 11th. I then received 2 envelopes with a check inside each on May 20th via my Traveling Mailbox, which I deposited electronically. (This check for $59.62 and another for $22.58.)
Free Money! (modified to remove incriminating information)
Summary
Unclaimed assets always sounded super sketchy to me, so I never took the time to see if there was mystery money the universe wanted to send my way. It turns out it isn’t so shady after all, and it is possible to search and find funds owed to you with just a few clicks on some State government web pages.
With just a few minutes of effort we found over $80.
It is my hope that by sharing this experience you too will be motivated to collect on the unclaimed assets owed to you.
How much $ did you find?
Please let us know in the comments!
I found $0 for me, but $63 bucks for my mom after 2 minutes of searching.
I calculate that at $1,890/hour, sitting on my butt. In Thailand. Not bad.
Mom and I thank you, Mr. Cracker!
Don’t spend it all in one place
Government makes public reminder every few years.
One year I found a few hundred claimable from a large bank.
Probably annual leave entitlement of a failed company from years before that I was not expecting and forgot about.
Over next year I contacted bank a few times to be told each time the cheque ‘will be in the post pronto’ and then forgot about it.
Last time I reminded the middle manager of the times he had promised ‘in the post’. He sought explanation from minions whose answer was ‘dunno’. On his mothers grave he promised ‘this time for dead certain’ and it was thus.
https://moneysmart.gov.au/find-unclaimed-money
3rd time’s the charm, I hear
I did this about 7 months back, my mother had over $250 in unclaimed assets. She went the snail mail route and got her money a few months later.
Nicely done
I found 1 claim over $100 for my sister who passed away and 2 claims under $100 for my brother in law. I’m forwarding your site and unclaimed.org info to my brother in law. Thanks for the post!
Wow $100 for my wife from an old AT&T account.
Thanks!
If you want to go the extra mile, pick some charities you care about and search for them. Most unclaimed property is held on behalf of businesses, non-profits and government agencies.
Smart!
No joy here, but thanks for posting!
better that way – it just means you got the $ up front
Our state site is called
mycash.utah.gov and I found it just searching the state name and unclaimed.
I had looked before a couple of years ago, but because of your article I went there today. I may have found $33 from a bank account I closed years ago.
Thanks Jeremy.
Enjoy it!
Got my check last week!
The state of PA won’t show you the balance (only says “less than $100), but requires you to print, notarize, and mail the form. Hahahaha.
Thanks for the heads up, anyway.
that sounds like work
MN requires printing form, sign, and notarizing. Expecting $100 return.
lots of respect to you for going through that whole process – notarizing, ughh
I found a claim for $50-$100
And also claims for:
father-in-law (deceased)$10-$25
brother-in-law $25-$50
Not sure why the range (?)
Thanks for the info that was fun!
good clean wholesome fun
Thanks a lot for sharing! Can’t believe that I found one unclaimed asset from an address where I stayed almost an decade ago…
Ours was from the place we lived in 2012
No luck for myself or my wife. MIL has an over $250 claim (I think from her father’s estate).
I told her about that. No she and her brothers and sisters get to fight over it.
Thanks?
I gave this a shot and found about $20 from a utility bill that was overpaid several years ago at a place we used to live.
At least in Virginia, we had to provide proof of being the account holder for the utility bill and the address on file. That makes sense, but in practical terms, it just wasn’t something either of us still had documentation to prove.
It might be something we could track down by contacting other providers when we lived there, requesting bills, and providing those… but all that work for $20 just didn’t wind up worth it.
Still, it’s fairly easy to figure out if you’re owed something and can make that decision if it’s worth the effort on your own.
Thanks for sharing!
I found over $1000 with my old home owners insurance company. Unfortunately it is asking me to print a pdf and provide all sorts of information. For $1000 bucks I’ll try to find something that shows I was the owner of that home address 10 years ago :)
I found $44 for DH and I. Profitable us of my insomnia the other night
dathan, You can probably get a copy of the deed from the county recorders office the home was in. It may be possible to do this all online.
interesting, hadn’t thought of that. thanks for the heads up
After our father died my brother and I found nearly $2,000 in dividend checks held by the state. It wasn’t easy to file claims as the heirs to his estate but we eventually got the money.
My cousin works for a state government agency, and she found unclaimed funds in my name from a service company that I had hired and that went out of business. I’m still waiting for the check but the process for claiming was quite seamless.
I’d found myself $200 about 8 years ago after having switched jobs years back and I’d already forgot about this. Thanks for posting this article. I checked as soon as I read it and… there’s something there for me. The state of Nevada only says that it’s under a certain amount, like under $500 in my case, but whatever’s coming on the mail for me will be welcomed. Thanks again.
Indiana has a pretty good website for this. I search for myself and my family every few months. Some of the hoops they make you jump through are so very government of them, but so far I haven’t had an issues not getting my unclaimed property.
Thanks! I found some money (>$100) linked to an account with an address I moved 5 years ago.
Got obsessed with this and found about $4k in unclaimed funds for people I know. One friend texted me a photo of a check he got for $875! Another is getting around $1600. Pretty crazy.
Jackpot!