UPDATE! Collecting unclaimed property

On September 12 I reported that I had located $300 in unclaimed money with the state comptroller. Any time a company owes an individual money, they have to turn it over to the state for safekeeping.

You can search online with just your name to find out if you have any unclaimed property by going to http://unclaimed.org/ or http://missingmoney.com/. I did a search myself and discovered a $300 paycheck from an old employer that we had, for whatever reason, not received.

In fact, this turned out to be an old paycheck that was never delivered. We found our information, printed out a form and filled it out, and mailed it in with the appropriate requested identification (copies). On Sept 28 we got a check from the state! A small 1% fee was subtracted, not at all bad considering there were expenses involved in collecting, holding, and mailing the money (although they could also have earned money on it -via interest-, but it is also possible that they are legally prohibited from doing so).

We told a family member about this and they reported having almost $3,000 in unclaimed money!

With the ridiculous state of corporations these days, this does not at all surprise me. Companies can't even communicate with other departments in their own building, yet alone perform complex tasks like locating a customer and calling them on the telephone. Check with your local state comptroller to see if you have any unclaimed money.