How to Get Free Money Online

Here is a quick and easy way to get free money. Maybe I shouldn’t really say free because this is your money and you just don’t know about it. So maybe a more representative title would be “how to find money that is yours that you don’t know about” lol.

My friends and family absolutely love me for introducing this to them, and I am sure you will too after you are done reading this! Did you know that there are billions of dollars of unclaimed property that the Government is holding? This is money that has been forgotten by people like you and I, not knowing that we had it to begin with. Life gets busy ya know?

I was initially in denial thinking how can I not know about money that is mine? But this happens all the time. Think about all the security deposits you have paid that you haven’t collected back. Apartments, gas providers and electric companies are big into collecting deposits. Satellite dish providers are another one.
Think about prorated refunds from service vendors, especially whenever you change your home or auto insurance providers for example? Bank accounts you have abandoned because they had very little money in it? That money has probably grown a tiny bit because of interest.

This is a big one. What about an inheritance in your name that you didn’t know about? These are all just a handful of ways there can be money out there for you that you don’t know about. There are a ton of other ways as well.

Where Does the Lost Money Come From?

What causes unclaimed funds? People move all the time, distant relatives pass away and life just gets busy sometimes. Tenants move out of a rented apartment and forget to leave a forwarding address for the landlord to send back the deposit to. There can be many other reasons as well. Usually, people leave forwarding addresses at the post office, but the post office does not forward mail forever. Forwarding privileges expire at some point, usually after 12 months.
The Government gathers up all the unclaimed money and keeps it in the treasurer’s office. Depending on the State you live in, this money can be kept at another Government agency. In either case, it is available for you and you can redeem it at any time if you can prove your identity. Usually a State ID or driver’s license is good enough.

How Much Free Money Can You Get?

All of it that is in your name. In the early 2000’s for example, the Government held on average over $20 billion in unclaimed monies year after year. This amount keeps increasing because the number of people who are owed money increases over time. Most people never collect this. Check out the agency called the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. It is fascinating to learn the kind of money that is involved here.

I Found $142 to My Name

Yes, when I searched my name, I found out that AT&T owed me $43 from my old cell phone contract. A heating company owed me $17 and the electric company owed me $28. Then I found that my car insurance company owed me some refunds that they had sent to me, but because I had moved I never received the check.
All in all I became $142 richer the day I learned about this. According to the data and statistics around unclaimed property, the average amount remitted to a claimant is over $900. I had never imagined the amount could be this high. $900 is a healthy chunk of change, especially when not expected.

Where to Find the Free Money?

That is the million dollar question. There are online databases that you can use to search for unclaimed property. Each State is responsible for their records. Recently, States came together and decided to establish a central repository, which makes life easier for both the Government and the individual.
To see if you are owed any money, check out the Missing Money database. Just type in your name and the State you live in (include previously lived in States as well). You might just get a nice surprise. And when you do find something, I expect to be treated to lunch on you soon. Don’t you DARE cheat me out of that deal either.
Try it out.  Did you find something?  Are you aware of other similar ways to scour up lost cash?