You may have seen advertisements telling you that billions of dollars remain unclaimed in the United States due to lost or forgotten savings bonds, rebates, bank accounts, and more. These advertisements are for companies that can put people in touch with money to which they’re entitled. You don’t necessarily need to pay for this service, though. It’s possible to find unclaimed money from bank accounts with free online services.
Search NAUPA
The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) is the first stop for finding unclaimed money as well as property. From NAUPA’s homepage, www.unclaimed.org, you can select your state from a map to begin the search. Clicking on a state directs you to another Web site, such as that of the state’s comptroller or treasurer. You can then use that Web site to search for unclaimed property and money. Remember to search all states in which you’ve had a bank account.
NAUPA also provides a searchable database at www.missingmoney.com. You need only type in your first and last name and the abbreviation of the state you’re searching. This produces a list of unclaimed funds that may belong to you, such as money from old bank accounts and remittances from utility companies.
Claiming Money From the Bank
If you find that you did leave money in an old bank account, you may or may not be able to claim it. This partly depends on whether the bank is still in business and the amount of time that has passed since the bank closed. To locate current information on the bank, you can search for it with the “Bank Find” service at www.fdic.gov, which is the Web site of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
By entering the bank’s information in the search form, you can find out if it operates under a new name or if it merged with another bank. The results will also inform you of the bank’s locations, history, contact information, and more.
If the bank remains in business, you can simply contact it to begin the process of withdrawing your funds. If you find that the bank closed down, you have one and a half years from the time of its closing to empty your account. Following that, your money is turned over to the FDIC. You then have a few years to claim your money from them. However, if you do not claim the funds within that time period, they become the property of the FDIC.
