Just search for “’your state’ unclaimed property” and make sure it’s a .gov site (usually comes up first).

Search by your name (it could be last name and just the first initial), check the boxes, and claim the money.

You will get an email with instructions on what to include – it is usually the claim form itself with your signature, a picture of your driver’s license, and your social security number (often just the last four digits).

Occasionally, they will ask for proof of an old address. If that happens, and you don’t have one – check your credit report from https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ (it is a legitimate government site despite the .com domain, and you can get a free credit report from every agency one a year). Your old address should be listed there.

I just got myself a little under $1,000 in unclaimed funds. Some refund from my old college in one state, and unclaimed shares I forgot about in another. Even my teenage son had $350 sitting there as an old insurance/hospital refund – so check your kids and spouses, too!

    • Danitos@reddthat.com
      6·
      17 hours ago

      If you don’t mind me asking, why you got money waiting for you? I’m not from US, so I don’t underestand this concept

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todayEnglish
        6·
        8 hours ago

        I was in real estate. We collected earnest money from a particular buyer, and held it in an escrow account. The deal fell through, and we were required to return the money. However, the buyer ghosted us. We couldn’t reach them to return it.

        Our escrow account is audited by the state. We have to account for every transaction to or from that account. If we don’t have paperwork to justify the transfer, we could get fined or have our licenses revoked. We didn’t have paperwork for this buyer, so we had no legal authority to do anything with this money.

        Any account with any business can potentially have the same problem: a legal obligation to transfer money to a known person, but no way of actually completing the transfer.

        The solution is to transfer the money to the state’s “unclaimed funds” division. When the state audits our account, we can show that these funds are the state’s problem, not ours.

        The funds I’ve found were from a couple class action suits where I was apparently a member of the class. It amounted to tens of dollars. They were apparently filed long after I had moved, but I had never updated my address with the defendants.