Free Money Alert! How to Find and Claim Unclaimed Money | Ep. 294

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Intro/Outro: You know what it is.

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That's right.

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It's time to talk money with your money nerd and financial coach.

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Now tighten those purse strings and open those ears.

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It's the money talk with Tiff podcast.

Tiffany Grant: 00:00:14

Hey, Hey, and welcome to another episode of Tiffany's talk.

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Take where I answer your money questions right here on the podcast.

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So if you want your question answered, just go to www.moneytalkwitht.com/x,

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Tiffany, and I'll be more than happy to answer for you.

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So for today's episode, I wanted to talk about finding unclaimed money because this

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is something that not a lot of people do.

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And when I have done this in the past, I actually found some things, um, and

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also, you know, after telling other people about it, they found some things as well.

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So I wanted to do a whole episode dedicated to some resources that you can

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use to find some old money that you may be entitled to that you may have forgot

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about or didn't know was out there.

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So first and foremost, let's start with the state, right?

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Because anytime you have, um, a paycheck that you never got or There was a

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refund due to you from like, let's say your utility company or whatever,

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um, they have to report it to the state that this money is out there.

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So typically your state would have more information on if you have

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any funds like that out there.

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So a resource that you can use is the National Association of unclaimed.

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property administrators websites.

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So N a U P a, and I'll make sure I have the link in the show note.

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It's unclaimed.

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org, but that is a national network collecting records from all 50 states.

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And from there, you can find links to each state's official

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unclaimed property program.

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I know here in North Carolina, the process was very simple.

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I also checked New York and that was very simple as well.

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So you just go to these websites, um, for each state.

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wherever you've lived before, and you just type in your name, some basic

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information, and then it pops up with records that may or may not be yours.

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So definitely check and make sure that it is your record by

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checking, you know, the details.

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If you've never worked somewhere, then obviously that's probably not yours.

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It might be someone else with the same name that was in the same state.

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So just check it over carefully.

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Then once you get through the process of actually getting to claim it, you do have

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to put in a little bit more information just so they can verify who you are

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and then your funds are on the way.

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So I've used this before and I've done it via New York and North

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Carolina and it worked well.

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Another thing to check out.

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is the IRS.

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Um, the IRS may owe you money if your refund was undelivered or unclaimed.

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So if you had to get a check in the mail or if your direct deposit

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didn't go through, um, the IRS could owe you still owe you that money.

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So to find out if that applies to you, just go to the IRS's website,

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where's my refund tool, and you can check the status of your refund.

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I'll make sure I put that link in the show notes as well.

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I'll put all these links in there.

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Um, Another thing to look into, which I had to do with my grandma when

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she passed away, was to look into old pension and retirement plans.

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So if you left a job and forgot about your pension plan, you

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might have that money waiting.

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And a company website that you can use is Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation.

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It has a searchable database for this, and so you can put in your

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information, see if there's any old pension or retirement plans out there.

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This is great resource for if you have any seniors in your family,

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so like your grandparents or great grandparents, um, just to see if

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they have anything out there that could be beneficial to them now.

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Life insurance policies, y'all.

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If a loved one passed away and you're the beneficiary on their

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life insurance policy, That might be unclaimed money as well.

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We had to do this with my grandma too, because she had so many different

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things in so many different places.

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We were like, you know what, let's just double check.

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And shout out to Aquania Escarne from the purpose of money.

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Because when my grandma passed away, um, she was very helpful in.

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giving me this information because I didn't even know this exists,

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but the National Association of Insurance Commissioners has a tool

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on their website to help you look for unclaimed life insurance money.

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So shout out to Aquania for that information.

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And I wanted to share it with you all to make sure that you have that as well.

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So you can go to that website.

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Check out the tool that they have put in the information and you can see if you

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are a beneficiary or any life insurance policies of someone that passed away.

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Another thing you can look at is government websites.

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So if you go to usa.

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gov slash unclaim money, this is a resource where you can find a list of all

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the places you could have money and a list of reputable sites where you can claim it.

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So this is like a conglomerate website that has all of these

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resources that I'm mentioning.

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In this episode, plus more, um, that you can go to and see if

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you have any money out there.

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I will really quick say a word of warning.

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Um, there are companies that offer to find this money for you for a fee.

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Don't pay these fees.

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Um, most of the time it's scams, uh, Most, if not all of the information

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these companies use is available for free, so you can easily do this yourself.

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Don't feel like you have to pay someone to do this for you.

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And honestly speaking, at least in my case, when I've done this,

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the amounts were so small, like it wouldn't have been worth paying anyone.

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I think the most that I've gotten was like an old paycheck that was like a

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hundred and something dollars, right?

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So.

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So don't pay anybody to do this for you.

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That's why I'm doing this website.

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You could do the research yourself and it's very simple,

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easy, straight to the point.

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All right.

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All right.

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So let's get back into the list.

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So another thing that you can check is credit unions.

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So if you've ever had a credit union account that you closed, you might

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have unclean money so you can check.

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that at the National Credit Union Administration website, they have a

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tool to check for unclaimed deposits.

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Now you might be thinking, how could this happen?

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Let's say for instance, you open a credit union account,

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you've totally forgot about it.

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They administratively closed it, or maybe you closed it and

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didn't realize or wasn't able.

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To get them funds that day when you closed it, you may have

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unclaimed deposits in there.

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So just check it out.

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You never know.

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Um, another website is missing money.

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com.

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So this is another reputable site to check for unclaimed property.

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If you check all of these other ones, they're, they pretty much pull in

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most of the same information, but that's just another resource for you.

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Then you can also check, you know, we talked about federal taxes, but

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what about your state tax refunds?

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Check with your state departments of taxation, um, to see if you have

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unclaimed tax refunds at the state level.

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So this is all state specific.

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Type in the Google search, North Carolina Department of Taxation or North

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Carolina Department of Revenue, and you should be able to find their website.

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And then from there it should be easy to find, um, you know, where

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you can check on your tax refunds or search for any unclaimed refunds.

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So hopefully this episode was helpful for you to find some unclaimed

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money that you may have outstanding.

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It is a very easy process.

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It doesn't take too long for most of these websites.

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I'll be sure to have all of these links in the show notes.

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So hopefully this episode was helpful in thinking about different ways that

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you can find some extra unclaimed money that may be out there for you.

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I know I've done this before in the past, like I said at the beginning, and also

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friends and loved ones have done this as well to just find extra money that.

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didn't even know existed.

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In one situation, I had a check from an old employer

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that I worked at very briefly.

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I think I was only there for a few weeks or so.

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And it was like 2018 when I did the search and that check was like from 2015.

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So it was something that was super old, totally forgot about it, but I was

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able to get those funds at that time.

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So definitely check it out.

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Something that I do periodically just to see what's out there.

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And then also another thing to help with your finances this month, I am

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offering my budget Nirvana course mastering your money flow for 97.

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Its regular price is 2.

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Um, also with access to that, you get access to my community for free.

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So definitely check that out.

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I will have a link to that in the show notes as well.

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Thank you so much for listening to the Money Talk with Tiff podcast

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and this episode of Tiffany's Take.

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I truly appreciate you.

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And please make sure that you rate and review this podcast if you enjoy it.

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And if it's helpful for you, it helps other people find us the

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way out of poverty is ideas.

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And I love spreading this information.

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Also, I would love to hear if you find any money as a result of listening

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to this episode, you can go to.

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www.

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moneytalkwithtea.

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com forward slash contact dash us, and I'll be more than happy to hear from you.

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Um, I love hearing from my listeners and just let me know how much did you find?

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Was it helpful?

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All of these different things, it would be interesting to know.

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So thank you so much for listening to the podcast and I hope you

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have a wonderful rest of your day.

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Intro/Outro: Bye.

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Thank you for listening, joining, and being a part of the money

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talk with TIFF podcast this week.

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You can check TIFF out every Thursday for a new money talk podcast, but

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if you just can't wait until next week, you can listen to previous

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podcast episodes at moneytalkwithtea.

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com or follow TIFF on all social media platforms at moneytalkwithtea.

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Until next time, spend wise by spending less than you make.

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A word to the money wise is always sufficient.

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Transcribed

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by https: otter.

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ai