Hack 79 · Dominate Your Bills
Check for Unclaimed Property or Refunds
Unclaimed property searches look for money already owed to you that is sitting with a state or provincial treasury, such as old deposits, forgotten accounts, overpayments, and uncashed refunds. The official searches are free and take a couple of minutes. Results range from nothing to several hundred or even a thousand dollars.
How to do it
- Search the official government unclaimed property site for your area.
- Search every state or region you have lived in, and old name spellings.
- File the claim directly, since the official process is free.
What it typically saves
Typically $20 to $1,000 or more, if anything is being held for you.
Questions people ask
Is this a scam?
The official government searches are genuine and free. Services that charge a fee to find money you could find yourself are the thing to avoid.
Should I pay a finder?
Almost never. Anyone offering to recover your unclaimed money for a percentage is charging for a free public search.
How often should I check?
Once a year is plenty, since new property is reported continuously. It also costs nothing to check for family members.
Go deeper
This is the short version. The full walkthrough lives in Invest Smart, Pay Less, book 4 of The Everyday Money Upgrade — where this hack comes with the official search sites by region, how to search old addresses and name variants, and the claim process from search to payment.
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