December 15, 2022
Did you know that there’s a ton of money and property that goes unclaimed in the United States? The answer is YES! Over 40 billion dollars of unclaimed money and property. That’s right. Forty Billion…with a “B.”
It’s quite possible that you have free money laying around that you don’t even know about. And this time of year, who couldn’t use some free, found money. This could be way better than finding just a few spare coins in the couch cushions. Sometimes money that belongs to people simply gets lost, and the state in which it gets lost can hold that money until it’s rightfully claimed. But don’t wait too long! States often have a time length for which they hold unclaimed funds before they call it their own if no one comes along to prove it’s rightfully theirs.
If you think about it, the answers might be simple. People move, and they forget to forward their mail, and perhaps a refund for some type of service which was mailed to you was returned. The company doesn’t know how to find you. For instance, did you overpay the electric company for your electric bill before you moved, but then you forgot to let them know about an address change? What about your landlord? Perhaps he or she, or the rental management company, owes you some interest on your deposit, and they don’t know how to find you.
Did you have an old bank account that was closed? What about a small 401k or pension amount for a company that’s no longer in business? What about costs associated with your healthcare which you might have accidentally overpaid? Life becomes busy, and people simply forget about money that might have been automatically saved, or somehow lost. In some cases, you may have a few dollars that are owed to you. In other cases, people have found thousands of dollars that are rightfully owed to them that’s just waiting to be claimed.
Finding free money is awesome. Also awesome is that there are plenty of free government services to help you find your lost money and property. To start of efficiently, you might want to visit MissingMoney.com, where you can enter in your information and this site will show you missing money from all participating states. Often times, states will have an official unclaimed property site for their current or former residents. An easy search should help you locate any unclaimed property. Keep in mind, that legitimate resources should not make you pay to find out if you have unclaimed property or money. Unclaimed.org is another solid resource for you to find out if you have any unclaimed money or assets.
Did you ever have a home loan through the FHA? It’s quite possible that they have a refund for you that you don’t know about. You can check the status related to any housing refunds by going to HUD.gov.
Ah, the tax man. He needs us to pay him on time, but he takes his sweet time paying us when it’s our turn to be paid. Many people don’t realize that the IRS also has hundreds of millions of dollars in unclaimed refunds that people have not claimed. Are you one of those people? Did you forget to file your return? What you can do is visit IRS.gov and check out the “Where’s My Refund?” section of the IRS website. In addition to visiting, you’ll probably need to plug in your Social Security Number. You may need to file a past return to claim unclaimed tax refunds. You may want to consult a tax preparer to help you with returns you forgot to file.