free money

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!