Did I say free money? Yes, I did. Everyone likes it when you find money laying on the ground or in a pocket of jeans you haven’t worn in a while. Typically, when that happens you find anywhere from one cent to $20. Of course, you don’t get too excited for one cent, but when you find a twenty, WOOHOO! Now imagine if you found $50, $100, $1000, or more. How would you feel then? You might just have some money out there that is unclaimed and it is free to get. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) states that there is approximately $42 Billion in unclaimed money. So how do you find your family’s money?
NAUPA does it’s best to help people find money and claim it if it is rightfully theirs. In 2015 they helped return over $3.2B, unfortunately, that was just under half of the total unclaimed property for the year of $7.7B. There are only certain organizations that the NAUPA endorses. As with anything, there are scams out there too.
How to Find the Unclaimed Money
There are several reliable sources for finding this money. The searches are free to do. First, go to NAUPA’s website and MissingMoney.com (endorsed by the NAUPA). They also have several links on the site where you can also search.
When going to the different sites make sure you do complete searches in each place you have lived. Also, make sure you check all of your names you have used. This would include different combinations of your name. For example: if your name was John James Smith, then you would want to try the full name and James Smith, as well as John Smith. If you have a maiden name use those combinations as well. Also, try just putting in your first initial as well as your last name. This will check for any misspellings of your name.
You do not need to enter any real sensitive information to do the search. When you input a search as outlined above it brings up a list of all addresses that match your funds. It is this way that you can tell if it is yours or not.
How Much Money Can I Get?
Obviously, it varies on the amount that people can actually get back. As for me, unfortunately, I did not have any unclaimed money. The average amount is around $900. Imagine that, finding $900. Wouldn’t that make your day?
How do I Get the Money
Every state has its own forms and process to collect the money. There are services out there that can do it for you, but you can probably do it yourself with a little effort. The services that are out there typically charge 10% to 20% fee to do the work for you. If you use a service don’t pay more than 20%. This is not something that happens overnight. It can take three to four months to get your money back.
My Final Thoughts
As I stated earlier, this is not something that is sustainable for an income. That should not stop you from checking. You could have $100, the average of $900, or even more. You never know until you check. It only takes a few minutes to check and it is free to do so. I hope this helped you on how to find your family’s unclaimed money.
Looking for a more sustainable way of earning extra money from home, check out my number one recommendation.
If you have found unclaimed money, please let us know below. We love to hear about it.