There is so little advertising by the states about unclaimed money that you probably don’t know how it is probable that you are owed unclaimed money. If you have any doubt as to the extent of the problem, do keep in mind that Oprah Winfrey has said that as many as eight out of nine Americans are owed unclaimed money.
Want to know more?? Want to get your unclaimed money back?? Read ahead.
• Please do not make the mistake of simply concluding that you cannot be owed unclaimed money. The childhood savings account that has been lying idle after you joined college may have become unclaimed money owed to you. The most common constituents of the
Unclaimed Cash kitty are:
• Savings accounts
• Checking accounts
• Safe deposit box contents
• Forgotten stocks, mutual funds, bonds dividends etc.
• Uncashed checks
• Unclaimed refunds
• Forgotten wages
• Insurance policies that have matured
• Money in trust funds and escrow accounts
The cash owned by you becomes
lost money when it has remained idle for three years or more. If you have not contacted any institution where you have deposited money for the past three years and if they are unable to contact you, the money will be treated as unclaimed money then onwards.
What happens next?? The cash is handed over to the State or federal government for safe keeping until the cash is claimed by the owner. Since the money becomes unclaimed money because the owner cannot be traced, it is impossible for any institution to inform the owner that his or her money has become unclaimed money. This implies that unclaimed money owed to you can be discovered only if you start searching for it.
Have your begun your search yet??
So you want to search for the unclaimed money owed to you but have no idea how to proceed?? Start by going through the state databases of unclaimed money. Search for you name and keep searching until you are sure no money could be owed to you in that state database.
However, simply searching a single state database will not do. You will have to check the databases of all the states along with the federal database as well. If you are not going to search in a comprehensive manner, you might as well not search at all. It does not make sense to search one database at a time. You will have to search fifty state databases and then move to the federal database. Rather, make use of an all-in-one database that searches all state and federal databases in a single search.
Bill McIntosh is Founder of
Cashunclaimed.com, which is an all-in-one database, is of the opinion that one should search for the names of one’s relatives and friends as well. This site lets you search for names as many times as you want for free.
According to Bill, a good site ought to search for variations of the name being searched to ensure that the unclaimed money owed is found as early as possible. However, you could also key in variations of your own name to reduce the chances of unclaimed money being owed to you to the very minimum.
Once the search is complete, fill out the claim form and submit the same. Provide a proof of identification along with the form. Since processing time takes around two weeks to twelve weeks, bide your time and the check repaying the
unclaimed cash will be in your mailbox!
About the Author:
Nicole Anderson offers additional information about unclaimed money at www.cashunclaimed.com. If you want to get back your lost money and
unclaimed funds without any hassles, just visit www.cashunclaimed.com to search 120+ databases in one go. Conduct a single search and all the money owed to you will be flashed on your screen.
