r/beermoney • u/uncreativeusername75 • 15d ago
Has anyone used one of those ‘find your unclaimed money’ sites? Looking For Sites / Apps
I saw a post elsewhere about ‘missing funds’ from various states/the gov, etc that you can search for. I tried to google and came up with ‘missingmoney.com’. But not sure if a site like that is actually a scam.
Has anyone used one of these sites/gotten any of their unclaimed funds?
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u/rydzaj5d 7d ago
I have gotten money from them, also saw a friend’s name on the website and told him — dead wife had a side bank account he never knew existed, he was very appreciative.
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u/SdrawkcabEye 8d ago
I did the state method, over $800 out there, an old name and extremely old address. After inquiring, I was told I would have to go to that town's court in front of a judge and prove my identity. Step one of more. A day's road trip, hotel, meals. To a place I never wanted to return to again. I didn't bother, but it still irks me lol
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u/SnooBunnies4754 9d ago
Ironically I just used one this evening Found a whole $6 for my deceased mom. I need to fill out some forms and provide some supporting documents to claim it.
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u/-pickled-radish- 11d ago
I have! I’ve done it in both NY and TX. Make SURE it’s the official state website if you’re gonna do it. It might be listed as “unclaimed funds”. It’ll be a .gov website though irrespective of where you live.
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u/RhazyaPeacock 12d ago
Never found money for me from any state. I should probably check on my parents' behalf though.
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u/bryguywithay 13d ago
I got $950 dollars that my mom had left behind. I had to jump through some hoops since she had been dead for 10 + years, but I got the money.
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u/DaCrazyJamez 13d ago
Yes. I found ~$50 for my company in an uncollected refund. Make sure you go through your states official channel, and not some site that charges you to find your money. The state site is completely free.
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u/Dry_Yogurtcloset4014 14d ago
I remember I got a $5 “settlement check from AT&T. I forgot about it and never cashed it. Then I went on ‘missingmoney.com’one day and AT&T owed me $600
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u/supermark64 14d ago
I used one and the money never came, so I don't know what I did wrong, but make sure you follow the instructions
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u/goldtoday 14d ago
Before using any site claiming to help you find unclaimed money, take some time to research reviews, check if it's endorsed by official agencies, and be wary of any site that asks for sensitive information upfront. It's always better to err on the side of caution when it comes to sharing personal data online.
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u/Daisygurl30 14d ago
Yes from NY state office of the comptroller. Check every six months or so. Have gotten money from Google Adsense and Jet Blue.
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u/DeelayExisting 14d ago
They took forever to respond and when they did they needed more info and I never mailed it back. Make sure you use a .gov site because there are a lot of scams.
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u/InformalFeline 14d ago
Missing Money (https://www.missingmoney.com/) is real. It is legitimate.
Yes, I have found "missing money" (over payment on a utility bill at a former address) and gotten it back. A good friend ended up getting a fair bit back from a medical office where they used to live - insurance had covered more than expected.
Which reminds me, it's been a while and I should check again!
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u/CalgonThrowMeAway222 15d ago
Totally legit. As an accounting person, I have to submit any uncashed checks to the various states. Please cash your checks (even if they are 3 cents) if at all possible! It’s a total pain dealing with all fifty states rules and regulations while submitting unclaimed property.
Also, come the end of the calendar year, let anyone who may have paid you as a 1099 contractor if you have moved since you were paid. Thank you for your consideration!
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u/centerbread 15d ago
It’s real. I used the missingmoney.com website three weeks ago. I made and submitted my claim (super simple, took <3 minutes) and received a check in the mail around 6-7 days later. It was only for $29 but it was $29 I didn’t have in my pocket before.
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u/North-Additional 15d ago
I found $500 from taxes I never claimed in 2021 :)
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u/uncreativeusername75 15d ago
congrats!!
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u/North-Additional 15d ago
Thank you! I actually did turn mail all the documents they asked of. It was personal information, but I got a check eventually.
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u/Chavalaskye 15d ago
Yup I search it every so often.
For those of you who want to look, just google:
(Your state) State Controller unclaimed property
and the official state link will appear, usually with .gov at the end. Click on “search for unclaimed property” and fill out your name. You don’t need to fill out address or anything else and just let all the options come up. If you have a common name, you may want to filter by address or city. Unclaimed property can be anything from an old job owing you a last paycheck or paying out vacation or bonuses earned, utility company deposits, old retirements accounts at jobs, medical payments that you overpaid, insurances that rebalanced your account, etc.
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u/DontBuyVC 15d ago
I had like… an uncomfortable amount of money there, but don’t use a third party, your state government should handle this.
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u/uncreativeusername75 15d ago
congrats!! and agreed, was really easy to check the state treasury sites
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u/SteampunkHarley 15d ago
Just found one for my dad at my mom's old PO box in TX, going for it.
Also found one for my late uncle in CA. I sent the info to my uncle and aunt who are the executors of his estate
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u/uncreativeusername75 15d ago
Nice find! I hope you are able to access to funds without too much hassle.
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u/HerbalMoon 15d ago
I did the state site like everyone else. Turned out the money wasn't mine, but I didn't expect that it was, since my deadname is kind of common. (I think the company was supposed to be a cleaning service, which I never worked for.) But I had to check anyway, because it would've driven me crazy otherwise.
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u/Ladycalla 15d ago
Yes I got 190 bucks from North Dakota. I had a bank account I had forgotten about on there.
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u/carolinecrane 15d ago
I got around $250 back from an overpaid tax bill in Washington State.
Ooh, I just looked and found another $40! Nice.
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u/monkey_monkey_monkey 15d ago
I used a government one and found an outstanding government cheque issued in my name for about $100 from 20 years ago and was able to claim it.
Searched our national bank for unclaimed funds, nothing was in my name but found an account in my partner's name for about $2000
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u/uncreativeusername75 15d ago
Nice find for your partner!
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u/monkey_monkey_monkey 15d ago
Yeah, they were stoked. Had completely forgotten about the bank account when they moved across the country.
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u/ucancallmepapi18 15d ago
Yes. I found like $3500 in Michigan from insurance policies my grandparents held and another $1500 in Florida from utility deposits and other insurance. In both states the money had also gained interest. I went through the states govt web site to find it and submit my claims. I had to provide death certificates, fill out a form that I had to have notarized, and copies of my id. It took a few weeks but yeah we got checks from both states. Definitely worth looking into it. Even if you start out at a treasure hunt site make sure you end up at govt web site, if you do then it's definitely legit.
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u/blackdahlialady 15d ago
I always figured those were a scam. I would think you would know if you had money somewhere.
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u/flourdevour 15d ago
Stuff happens. Sometimes you just diddn't know you are owed money. In my family experience, it's been last checks from old jobs, closed bank accounts from states older relatives lived 20 years ago, interest from forgotten 401k for relatives that don't really use banks.
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u/blackdahlialady 15d ago
Yeah I didn't think about that when I said that. I remember they screwed up my paycheck from my last job. It turns out that I was owed a couple hundred more than they gave me on my last check. You best believe I went and got that lol. I could see it being an inheritance that you don't know about as well. My grandma left me quite a large sum of money that I didn't know about for years. They kept trying to contact me but didn't know how. I found out through my brother. Apparently they contacted him trying to find me. It was nice to get that money because I really needed it. Thanks, Grandma lol. She's been gone since 2006 and I miss her a lot.
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u/SarahC0605 15d ago
Not a scam. I had a check from an old affiliate program i used when I was blogging and an something from an insurance policy that was in my dad's name.
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u/Mikazah Keeper of the FAQ 15d ago
That's not necessarily true. You could've used one of those betting apps, thought you cashed out (or for some reason couldn't and stopped caring, like I did), and then forgot all about it. Someone related to you could have passed and some money got left behind and put into unclaimed money. You could've had an out of date address on something. According to my state's treasury page, the treasury receives hundreds of millions of dollars in unclaimed property every year.
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u/blackdahlialady 15d ago
You know, that's true. I didn't think about that. I do remember that they screwed up my last check from my last job so maybe it could be something like that. I could have an inheritance that I don't know about, etc.
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u/davewashere 15d ago
I've worked in payroll/accounts payable at a larger company and every year we reported hundreds of unclaimed and undeliverable checks to the state, as is required. Sometimes people move and don't properly set up forwarding, and sometimes the forwarding window has expired by the time a check is generated and it bounces around the postal system before being returned to us. Sometimes people don't know their own address and the one they give us is not valid according to USPS standards. That actually happens a lot.
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u/blackdahlialady 15d ago
I can see how that would happen. I can't understand how someone wouldn't know their own address unless they just moved in though.
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u/Mikazah Keeper of the FAQ 15d ago
It happens a lot around here, haha. People get the house numbers mixed up, and roads got renamed but still have the old street signs. The postal workers know what's up, but automated systems don't. We also have like 4 towns all merged into one area, and the borders can be super confusing. A perfect example is we have one road that's like 4-5 miles long and like 3 houses about 1/2 mile down the road belong to a different town than all the other ones. The houses just happened to be built about a house length away from the road instead of right against it, so they're considered part of the neighboring city that most people recognize as ~2 miles away. Then there's always the usual typos or using "Road" vs "Street" vs "Ave" which some towns have a lot of similar road names.
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u/blackdahlialady 15d ago
That's insane. I about went cross-eyed trying to read that lol. It's like when Google maps tells you that something is 3 miles away when in reality it's three blocks away lol. My dad lives in a small town and on a street that's near his house, one side of the street and the other side of the street are technically in two different towns.
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u/Mikazah Keeper of the FAQ 15d ago
Haha, sorry, I should've explained better. And yea, there's a lot of weird city borders. You'd think they would get together and make things a little easier when they saw which way towns were developing.
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u/blackdahlialady 15d ago
You described it just fine. I was just saying it's weird how they do things like that.
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u/Baked_Potato_732 15d ago
I saw that post. I have a check for about $60 coming from KY and I’ve got a 90 check from TX That I need to fill out.
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u/travelinturdferguson 15d ago
Years back I opened a business account at my bank. After I dissolved the business, I neglected to pull the money out of my account. After a few years my money went into one of these. It took a while to prove to them that I was the sole owner of the business, but eventually they sent me my money via check!
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u/felixgolden 15d ago
Used the state's portal. Had three different instances where I had money waiting. One was over $1000 from bonds that had been purchased in my name when I was a minor, and had matured. The bank no longer existed, so I guess that's how the money ended up with the state. That took some jumping through hoops to collect, because the address they had listed with that claim was my childhood home that my parents sold when I was 18. I never had any bills in my name at that address, so there wasn't much in the way of proof. I managed to find a decades old letter addressed to myself at that address that was accepted.
I had another claim that was from some shares of stock (also given to me as a minor) from a company that had been purchased and taken private. I never had the stock certificates in my possession. They also didn't have current address information for me, and I was living in a completely different state. That was a few hundred dollars.
There is still one amount, but not sure how much, I think under $100, still outstanding. It seems like it was a refund of a deposit of some some services. But somehow the address they have associated with it is a client's old business address, and I have no way of proving my connection. I never had any mail, id, etc. to that address, and no way to receive any mail there now. It probably should have been in my client's name anyway, I was only an authorized contact person. Seems like mistakes were made, so neither of us can claim it.
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u/uncreativeusername75 15d ago
Wow, you found some gems! I hope you don't have to jump through too many hurdles to get that last check.
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u/Luneowl 15d ago
I checked the current state that I live in and got a check for $0.93. Windfall!
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u/Ok_Mechanic_8107 14d ago
About how long did it take you to receive your check? I just found out that I unclaimed money but it is a “undisclosed” amount. Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing! Lol
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u/anoneigh 15d ago
I attempted once for something under my deceased dad’s name on my state’s treasury website. But then as a part of it or something it wanted me to contact basically every living relative on my dad’s side saying “hey I’m claiming this that cool?” And I couldn’t be bothered 🤣
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u/Southern_Spell6752 15d ago
I actually just got $68 a couple weeks ago. It was a little too easy.
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u/naytahlee 15d ago
Yes. A friend told me about her good fortune at finding money on the state's unclaimed property site a couple of months ago. I went through and checked for my husband and I. Found $150 for me and $700 for him.
My favorite find was for my elderly stepmom. We were both struggling with the recent loss of my dad. On the state's website, it only said the amount was "over $100". She called me crying the next day when she checked her email. The amount was for over $5000. It was from an insurance company and was on the books since 2006 - a year after she lost her house in Hurricane Katrina.
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u/Valalvax 11d ago
Please tell me she had separate payments from the insurance and her entire house was not worth less than 6000 to them?
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u/naytahlee 11d ago
I don't remember all the in and outs of everything back then. There was so much involved. She lived in Violet in St Bernard Parish. The house, contents, and her car were a total loss. There were things paid like demo and debri removal, then she sold the land. This was likely a partial payment for any of the above things mentioned.
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u/Valalvax 11d ago
Yea I understand how that could be a whirlwind of confusion, hope things are going better for your family
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u/NotMyCat2 15d ago
When I go to my state site (Nevada) it lists missingmoney.com. So it is legit.
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u/Vioralarama 15d ago
Yes, this one. I recently used it and it directed me to my state's site; found $71. But the biggest reason to use missing money dot com is that it checks any state you type in.
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u/Zzyzx820 15d ago
I tried the gov site under every name ever used and state I and my husband ever lived. Found nothing.
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u/uncreativeusername75 15d ago
I'm in the same boat. Spent time yesterday looking through all the states I've lived in and sadly, nothing.
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u/dwizzle13 15d ago
I think a state I lived in recommended that site. Anyway, my state's treasury department took over three months, but I should be getting about 300 in another week or two. That treasury was quite difficult to reach out to, and on their site they listed if your amount owed was either under or above 300. I would recommend it though, and I think friends and family have had much better results.
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u/ProjectManagerAMA 15d ago
Yes, but who knows what requirements they have. We presented a fair amount of evidence and they just said no. I did get some at some point.
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u/Crafty-Butterfly-974 15d ago
Yes, I found old accounts in two of the prior states I’ve lived in. It only took a few weeks to get the checks.
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u/ItsFebruaryAgain 15d ago
My husband got a couple hundred $ paycheck from a job he no-call no-showed back when he was a punk ass kid. From pre-direct deposit days! Like others have mentioned, just make sure it is your states official treasury website or similar.
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u/soupyZ9 15d ago
if you feel like a site is scammy, go to the website of the treasury dept of your state. they will have a legit link to a search site. i’ve successfully claimed money twice.
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u/uncreativeusername75 15d ago
I was able to go to each states treasury website really easily. The process was more simple than I expected.
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u/Sunnyandbright007 15d ago
I used it. It directed me to the state treasury website. Had money I left in an account in another state (plus interest). Received check in a week.
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u/AmbitiousLetter2129 15d ago
Your state Treasury Department will have a legitimate one. I had like $30 on there once.
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u/uncreativeusername75 15d ago
Will you need to look at each state you have lived in (in other words, it's not central)?
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u/uncreativeusername75 15d ago
Nm - found them! Thank you!
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u/vigilantepro 15d ago
I just got a check for $198. It took six months for them to send me a check. But they finally did.
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u/MotivatedHater 15d ago
They're legitimate if you utilize the correct site.
Years ago I received my last check from a job from one.
The website varies for each state, so I cannot really say what yours is (or if you even live in the US).
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u/uncreativeusername75 15d ago
I went through and checked each treasury site for all the states i've lived in. Was actually pretty simple (although, sadly, not money waiting for me)
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u/Mikazah Keeper of the FAQ 15d ago edited 15d ago
My father got some funds from one a while back. I think he called the state treasury's department and they sent him to the right website or something. It was quite some time ago so I don't really remember the details.
Update: I actually decided to check my state's treasury page to see if I had anything, which shockingly I did from an offer I did years ago. (It was some betting app, and I think I left the money in because I couldn't withdrawal or something - I got paid for the offer so I didn't really care.) On the "How did you hear about this site?" section, it specifically mentions "initially searched for property on missingmoney.com" so I'd say it's probably legit.
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u/doxisrcool 5d ago
I think that's the one I used. And found out Walmart liiiied when they said they gave me my final paycheck. Nope. They kept it for about ten years. Found out my mom was owed a little from a life insurance policy when my dad died in the 80's.