Do you have unclaimed money sitting around just waiting for you?

Believe it or not, you just may. And you could find it sitting in your state treasury.

When a business or other entity tries to issue a payment to you, but they are not able to reach you, they don’t just get to pocket it. They have to deposit it with your state.

Maybe you moved and they didn’t know  your new address. Maybe you were set up on direct deposit and switched bank accounts. Whatever the reason for the discrepancy, the money must eventually makes its way to the state for safe keeping.

How to Get What’s Yours: Unclaimed Money

To check and see if you have any funds waiting, you can use the interactive map on this page to find your state’s searchable unclaimed money database.

From there, you’ll be able to search your state’s treasury to see if there is any money waiting in your name. If there is, it will pop up with some basic information, including the last address on file and the name of the company that originally issued the payment.

You will not know exactly how much you have waiting for you, even if something pops up. In my home state of Pennsylvania, the treasury classifies funds as “over $100” or “under $100.” You won’t know the exact number until you receive the funds.

Before you receive the funds in the mail, you have to fill out some paperwork. There are typically two options. You can either receive your payment by check or ACH transfer.

Request your unclaimed funds by ACH transfer

The procedure is going to vary by state, but generally speaking, receiving your unclaimed funds by ACH transfer is easier and faster.

You can fill out your banking information online, and the money will be digitally deposited into your bank account. You may have to provide some additional personal information to use this method, such as your Social Security number.

Request your unclaimed funds in paper check form

If you want to get a paper check instead, you typically have to print out a claim form from your state treasury’s website or request that a hard copy of the form be mailed to you.

You’ll then have to verify that you are the person who is owed money by providing your personal information, and in some cases you’ll have to sign the supporting documentation in front of a notary.

After the treasury has received your paperwork, they will issue you your long, lost check.

How to Avoid Scams Related to Unclaimed Money

Way back in the day, my ex-partner received a letter in the mail. In this letter, the company told them they had unclaimed funds amounting to around $2,000.

To claim them, all they had to do was fill out the enclosed paperwork certifying that the company sending the letter would get a 15% cut. That would have been around $300.

THIS WAS A TOTAL SCAM.

The company wasn’t entirely wrong — my partner-at-the-time did have unclaimed money waiting for them with the state treasury amounting to the same figure that the company’s letter laid out.

But the company didn’t disclose that they could get the money on their own.

Without paying anyone commission.

All they had to do was go to to the state’s website and filing the paperwork themselves.

Which they did. It turns out that big check was an insurance claim that they had fought for and subsequently given up on, even though the insurance company really and truly owed the payout.

The insurance company eventually figured that out, too, though I’m not sure how they “lost touch” with them since they had held continuous policies with the same insurance company ever since.

The moral of the story is two-fold:

1. Check your state treasury’s for unclaimed money regularly. Just because you don’t have money in there today doesn’t mean you won’t in six months.
2. Never ever release personal information or pay someone a commission to file simple paperwork for you. If they say they’ve got money for you, there’s no reason you should have to pay them to access it. Do some digging, find out where the money is and go get it yourself.