Claim what's yours

February 13, 2016 10:36 PM

MissingMoney.com is a database of governmental unclaimed property records. Exactly what it says it is. Click here for a list of participating states and provinces and links to individual states and provinces, along with contact information for the agencies for each respective jurisdiction.

Oregon link not working, for some reason. Others appear to work just fine.

posted by MoonOrb (49 comments total)

Previous related FPP... a long time ago.

Last time I searched for unclaimed funds, I hit the jackpot -- $1400. Unfortunately I doubt that will happen again when I need it.
posted by litlnemo at 10:45 PM on February 13, 2016

I read an article about this last year and searched the site though I was certain I had no missing money. It turns out I hard about $50 owed me. Who knew?
posted by bongo_x at 10:49 PM on February 13, 2016

The government agency I work for has gotten a lot more proactive about finding and contacting people we owe unclaimed money to, in no small part because the people who run these unclaimed-money-finder databases are such a PITA with their monthly "send us a list of everything you have" emails
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:55 PM on February 13, 2016 [2 favorites]

I found a claim for $222.02. Pretty sweet! Under required documentation, they want proof that I lived at a former address, but it was over 20 years ago when I was in college, so I'm not sure what I have that can prove it. Any ideas?
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:50 PM on February 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

There are a number of entries for members of my immediate family, but all the details beyond name and our town are Not Disclosed. Are these gonna be real?
posted by kafziel at 11:55 PM on February 13, 2016

Huh. I guess I never did pick up my paycheck from Starbucks that time I just decided never to go back again about ten years ago. Interesting.
posted by koeselitz at 12:01 AM on February 14, 2016 [4 favorites]

"but it was over 20 years ago when I was in college, so I'm not sure what I have that can prove it."

Save your transcripts?
posted by clavdivs at 12:03 AM on February 14, 2016

follow the money
posted by clavdivs at 12:04 AM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

TransUnion credit reports usually report many old addresses, if anyone is looking for proof that they lived at a certain address.
posted by koeselitz at 12:12 AM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have transcripts, but none from the time that show my then address. I need to track down proof of an address that I lived at for maybe a year, 20 years ago. Hrm.
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:21 AM on February 14, 2016

The versions of my credit reports that show up on Credit Karma don't go back that far, but maybe the complete ones do? I don't know... Credit Karma is now down for maintenance, so I'll have to check back in the morning.
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:22 AM on February 14, 2016

$9.95 from Synovus Bank baby! Daddy's eating French-Italian fusion* tonight.

* Chef Boyardee
posted by infinitewindow at 2:37 AM on February 14, 2016 [13 favorites]

US only.
Curses.... foiled again.
posted by Mezentian at 3:05 AM on February 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

Mezentian (and any other Aussies in the room), try ASIC's Unclaimed Money Search.
posted by brushtailedphascogale at 4:04 AM on February 14, 2016

Also for Aussies, money held by state governments and the ATO's super seeker.
posted by brushtailedphascogale at 4:08 AM on February 14, 2016

Weird, I put in my Dad's name and found a listing for him with the address where his parents lived in the fifties.
posted by octothorpe at 4:59 AM on February 14, 2016

Nothing for me, waaaah.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:33 AM on February 14, 2016

Google owes me some amount under $100? Huh.
posted by Jacqueline at 5:45 AM on February 14, 2016

I'm always a mix of disappointed and pleased with myself when I check this and find nothing under my name.
posted by obfuscation at 5:50 AM on February 14, 2016 [5 favorites]

The Quebec one -- where I found a few thousand dollars from a year or so after my birth -- isn't linked, but it's here. It's super hard to prove where you lived at 2 years old, btw. (I needed a long form birth certificate naming my father, and a legal document he drew up from around the same time with his full name and also that address.) My grandmother has some money from before she was married, which she can't find the documents for; I have some in the US, but don't have a record of my SSN anymore and can't get the money.
posted by jeather at 7:10 AM on February 14, 2016

Apparently Tiffany & Co owes Obama some money.
posted by destrius at 7:10 AM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh and the Canada federal version is here.
posted by jeather at 7:12 AM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Apparently Tiffany & Co owes Obama some money.

They owe me too. Got a gift card as a wedding present, we had no need for it so we sold it to someone else. They lost it. As far as Tiffany knows, we're owed the credit.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:13 AM on February 14, 2016

When I checked this a long time ago, I saw my name and an old address. They won't tell you the amount until you claim it. I didn't have any records with that address, so no go.

I checked again more recently, and that requirement was dropped. Turns out I had changed car insurance providers at some point, and was due a refund from the first guys. It was about $800, so yay, but there was a period there dreaming of vast inherited wealth from a distant relative or some such. Which was fun, kind of like holding a lottery ticket before the drawing.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:20 AM on February 14, 2016

Apparently my grandfather (dead since 1994) had less than $100 in a savings account that remains unclaimed.
posted by amro at 7:31 AM on February 14, 2016

There's a dude in Pittsburgh who shares my slightly uncommon first name:last name combo. I've known about him for years (and I assume vice versa) via googling myself, but I've never actually tried to communicate with him in any way.

According to this site, he's owed a few hundred bucks by an insurance company. I wonder if I should reach out to let him know?
posted by Itaxpica at 7:33 AM on February 14, 2016

A law firm notified my parents they could help reclaim money owed to them under this system years ago, for something like a 40% cut. They called me up, bewildered, and set me on it. It actually took a fairly large amount of paperwork, since the money was that of a deceased grandparent, but I got them back a few thousand dollars.

Since then, I have randomly haunted it from time to time, wistfully hopeful. Got my roommate back $50 last year and we used it for ordering dinner out one night.
posted by instead of three wishes at 7:37 AM on February 14, 2016

Oh and the Canada federal version is here.

Thanks jeather!

Hmm. I'm not owed anything, but there's just over $80 owing to my brother. I guess I can assess him a finder's fee.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:37 AM on February 14, 2016

Gotta send your full name, address & SSN to some website to collect? Yeah, not gonna happen. I'll look up the state office and call 'em directly.
posted by spacewrench at 8:16 AM on February 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

There's no ssn. Just name and state.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:43 AM on February 14, 2016

Some of the state websites it directs you to ask for your SSN, though, and one wanted verification of things like past addresses too — the same "which of these four streets have you lived on" song-and-dance you do when you claim a credit report online. That one was a .gov site, so I decided I was comfortable with it, but it would be totally reasonable for someone else not to be.
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:53 AM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

I wasn't surprised to see I had three different listings here — I've moved around a ton, left a lot of jobs on short notice, and changed my legal name.

I was surprised to see that one was for over a thousand dollars.

So, uh, either I just got spectacularly phished by a renegade state employee or this was a nice valentine's day present.
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:55 AM on February 14, 2016

If you find something you want to try to claim, they require name, address, phone and SSN.

I'm not saying it's not legitimate that the government agency that actually has the money would want your SSN. I'm saying I don't trust a non-governmental intermediary to pass that information on safely and without keeping a copy around "just in case."

The government may well have crappy security too, but at least I get some money for running the risk with them. MissingMoney.com is just aggregating state information (and thank you very much for that) but I'm still not gonna give you my current info.
posted by spacewrench at 8:56 AM on February 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

.cfm? Only crappy sites are built with ColdFusion.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:02 AM on February 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh? "MetaFilter runs on a ColdFusion engine written by Matt Haughey."
posted by JiBB at 9:37 AM on February 14, 2016

Oregon and Hawaii aren't participating. I guess I'll just have to keep waiting for that check from the Nigerian cousin I never knew I had. It should arrive any day now.
posted by mule98J at 10:08 AM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

I just got a letter from the Illinois Treasurer this week about some money I'm owed. It's about $100 from a forgotten bank account. The letter kept saying how fast and easy it will be to claim, and I just needed to visit their website (icash.illinois.gov) so I did. Turns out, there's nothing "i" about the process. All you can do at the website is request a form be mailed or print one out yourself. Everything is done by snail mail, I need proof I lived at addresses 3 or 4 apartments ago, proof of name change (due to marriage and divorce), and the form has to be notarized.

I understand the need to prove my identity so they're not giving my money to anyone else, but at the same time it's not nearly as simple as I was led to believe. If I didn't know one of the claims (I found 3 total) was $100 I probably wouldn't bother for the other "$10-$100" ones.
posted by misskaz at 10:15 AM on February 14, 2016

I entered my name and it just laughed at me and said "Why didn't you just enter 'John Smith'?".
posted by humboldt32 at 10:34 AM on February 14, 2016

So there's really no reason to use the middleman here if you'd rather not.

I went to the linked website for the state I have 'unclaimed property' in and there were a bunch of confusing links to lists and forms and rules and then a very simple web form front and center that said "Missingmoney.com is a web site authorized by the Arizona Department of Revenue and other states to list owners of Unclaimed Property. There is no cost to search for your property or to file a claim. If your name or the name of your business is listed, follow the instructions for filing a claim form on the missingmoney.com web site."

So much for cutting out the middle man. Honestly I'm not surprised AZ State Gov hired out the service.
posted by carsonb at 12:12 PM on February 14, 2016

So now I'm only hesitating because I really don't want to deal with the beater camaro I drove in high school, the only thing I can think of that might be considered my unclaimed property in the state of Arizona.
posted by carsonb at 12:13 PM on February 14, 2016

I'm now waiting for my $2400 from the state. Pretty sweet.
posted by zug at 12:17 PM on February 14, 2016

The site is broken, there is no missing money for me.
posted by maxwelton at 1:38 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oregon's state search site is working, just not the link they had for it.
posted by polymath at 2:22 PM on February 14, 2016

But Carsonb you can always get a tapedeck and play Dead Milkmen on it all the time driving around in your bitchin Camaro if Arizona still owes you one.
posted by vuron at 2:45 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Are you kidding, Vuron? He ran over his neighbors. His name was in all the papers.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 4:11 PM on February 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

mule98J: I received ~$70 of unclaimed money from the State of Hawaii a year ago. You need to go directly to the State's website here. To search, click on the link on that page that says, "State of Hawaii Unclaimed Property Search".

Hawaii and some other states may not be directly participating in MissingMoney.com, but each state DOES have its own unclaimed property (escheat) process. As stated upthread, MissingMoney.com is just an aggregator to help makes things easier, instead of people having to go to all 50 states.
posted by cynical pinnacle at 4:35 PM on February 14, 2016

I had to go to my state's page and searched for an old paycheck I knew I had left unclaimed but which never shows up in their database. (They sent the letter to my parents' house the first time and it got lost.) This time it showed up, so yay. CLAIMED.
posted by stoneandstar at 4:38 PM on February 14, 2016

There are a number of entries for members of my immediate family, but all the details beyond name and our town are Not Disclosed. Are these gonna be real?

I'm wondering about that too, I had several results that were the same way. You might want to try your state's .gov website directly, I was able to get more specific results that way. Sadly no missing money for me!
posted by photo guy at 6:20 PM on February 14, 2016

i found out about my own state's version of this, but I didn't know that this existed for most of the states.

(i didn't have any money under my name though)
posted by subversiveasset at 9:15 AM on February 15, 2016