unclaimed money

[sofedup]

Last night I went here: www.findcash.com and found my name on a list of people who are owed money. I tried several websites (my husband had seen something on the local news about one called Missing Money) but only Findcash had my name.

Once I found the name I did have to pay $10 to get the details (the $10 buys one month's access to the entire data base). But because my name (my ex-husband's name, actually) is unusual I decided it was worth the gamble. So it turns out I'm owed $277 by Fireman's Fund- I had no clue!

Frankly, I knew my chances were pretty good as my ex-husband is quite a piece-of-work, particularly regarding money. Good luck if you search!

[Catherine Vincent]

1. No such luck for me.

But I just may pay the $10 because I see my mom, dad and sister's name on there.

[sofedup]

2. good luck if you do

There were a wide range of amounts owed- from under one dollar to thousands. With three names on the list it seems unlikely that you'd actually lose money by paying the ten dollars.

Last week I started the process of claiming the money. I thought there might be a catch of some kind- but so far it's been really easy.

[Catherine Vincent]

3. Here's another site posted today:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x5501988

You get more info from this one.

[sofedup]

4. my name didn't come up on that list

Wonder why?

[ima_sinnic]

5. rather than paying any money, go directly to your state's unclaimed

property website and do a search of your name and relative's names. If you have lived in more than one state, try all of them. I worked briefly for one of these "middlemen"--they are contracted by the state to connect with the people who are owed money--people who have left without picking up a paycheck, or have a leftover pension plan, bank acccount or stocks, stuff like that--I guess the states are required by law to make a good-faith effort to return the money but of course they don't have the staff or the time to play detective.

My job was to go through the list that was provided by the state (I believe it is updated daily) and search people's names on this industrial-strength database he was privy to, listing all known addresses with dates, birthdate, SS number, then sending an official letter to the best-guess address asking the person to call to get assistance getting their property. The addresses were woefully wrong most of the time--I looked up my husband's name out of curiosity, they had an address listed that we occupied for one month more than 10 years ago. Some people appeared to have lived at one address for their entire lives, yet the letter would come back "unknown."

[ThoughtCriminal]

6. I picked up a couple of hundred that way

From an old escrow fund. Un-claimed assets are more common than most people assume.