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Home » Manage Money » 7 Ways to Find Free Money and Unclaimed Property Online

7 Ways to Find Free Money and Unclaimed Property Online

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  • Written By:
    Jeff Rose, CFP®

    Jeff Rose, CFP®

    Jeff Rose, CFP® is a Certified Financial Planner™, founder of Good Financial Cents, and author of the personal finance...

    Read More
  • Updated: September 8, 2023
  • 5 Min Read
  • This page features 1 Cited Research Articles
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 Indiana Jones racing through some foreign land seeking his next archaeological find is an adventure that this treasure seeker would never get tired of.

Who doesn’t get excited about finding a treasure? Especially if it’s free money!

Whether it’s finding a $20 bill in the parking lot of the mall or an old bond that your grandparents bought you, it’s always a nice treat to add some cash to your wallet and get free money.

Unlike Indiana Jones, you don’t have to head to some remote location to battle the local natives to find a secret treasure.

In fact, you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your own living room.

Here are some lost treasures that you can find simply with a few clicks of the mouse.

According to CNBC, there is currently $70 billion – that’s Billion with a capital “B” – of unclaimed property and money waiting for someone to claim.

Isn’t that crazy!

Are you ready to go treasure hunting and find some unclaimed property?

Here are 7 ways to find free money online.

Free Money From the State Treasure

Get Your Free Money: Treaure Hunting Online

1. www.unclaimed.org

What if you had a long-lost uncle who bequeathed a portion of his vast estate, but you never knew of it?  Well, your state treasury department just might. 

Most states have dedicated departments responsible for getting money back to its rightful owner.  The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators is comprised primarily of the treasurers of each state.


 

The group’s website, www.unclaimed.org, allows you to search under participating states.

A quick visit to the site and all I had to was click my state (Illinois), in the dropdown menu.  Selecting that took me to my state’s Treasury department site, where all I had to do was enter my name and see if I was destined to find my missing fortune. 

Alas, the results revealed “No Records Found,” and I’m off to my next treasure hunt.

Get Your Free Money Treaure Hunting Online

2. www.missingmoney.com

NAUPA also runs a site that allows searches of all participating organizations and by an individual’s name, www.missingmoney.com.

This site claims to have information on over $16B in lost bank accounts, orphaned retirement funds, stock shares from splits, tax refunds, or items left in storage lockers and safe deposit boxes. You name it, they’ve got it.

The site even shares a few success stories of people who stumbled upon the site only to find they had an old paycheck or life insurance claim that they never received.  Could I be one of the lucky ones?  It took all of five seconds to realize that I was not.

Treasury Hunting

Get Your Free Money Treaure Hunting Online

3. www.treasurydirect.gov

If you believe that you have some old bonds that got lost over the years, you might still be in luck.  Go to Treasury Hunt at www.treasurydirect.gov, where you can enter your Social Security number or any family member who may have once owned a missing bond. 

You can begin your “Treasury Hunt” to see if you are owed anything to hopefully get free money.


 

I had owned some Series EE bonds over the years, thanks to my grandmother purchasing them for me.  I had cashed them in over the years, but; maybe, just maybe, there was more than I was missing.  Once again, my treasure hunt hit a brick wall when I got this message:

We’re sorry, but no match was found on our database for the criteria you entered. Our database is updated often so please try your search again at a later date.

Don’t let my empty results stop you. Here’s some info from the Treasury Hunt site to help you find your missing money.

Please Note: The Treasury Hunt database is limited.

  • Treasury Hunt does not contain a record of all savings bonds. This system only provides information on Series E bonds issued in 1974 and after.
  • Treasury Hunt may not completely identify any/all savings bonds you may have lost… only those that have reached final maturity and were issued in 1974 and after. You can’t search for undeliverable bonds in Treasury Hunt. To file a claim for bonds, you must submit one of the following:
    • For lost, stolen, or destroyed bonds, submit Form PD F 1048.
    • For undeliverable bonds (bonds not received), submit Form PD F 3062-4.
    • You will need to provide information about dates of purchase, names on bonds, and other pertinent data.
  • Most records for registered Treasury notes and bonds can be searched through this system.
  • Please keep in mind, under the Privacy Act of 1974, if you are not the bond owner or co-owner, we are limited in the information we can provide.

What About Pensions?

4. www.search.tbgc.gov/mp

Get Your Free Money Treaure Hunting Online

For me, this is a treasure I won’t be able to find since I’ve never had a pension.  If you’re like me, then here’s your chance to help out a loved one. Who knows – they may pay you a finder’s fee 🙂

If you have a family who worked for a company that offered a pension, it’s a possibility that they may have some money left from a current or former employer.  All you or they have to do is go to the pension benefits guarantee corporation, www.search.tbgc.gov/mp, and search your name and the state you reside.

I pulled a list from Illinois and was amazed at the number of names that appeared.  If you think you have a shot, go to the site and get your free money!

Claiming Old Life Insurance

5. www.naic.org

Finally, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners has a life insurance company location system that will allow you to look for a lost policy with as little evidence as a premium payment received long ago. 

The site has a nice “how to” guide to help you find lost policies, but I was unable to find anything that I was owed.

The site also suggests:

If your state insurance department is unable to locate the correct insurance company, you should go to your local library and request Best’s Insurance Reports. This annual report lists insurance company names and addresses, reorganizations, mergers, name changes and bankruptcies during the last year.

Finally, many life insurance companies are members of life insurance trade associations. You should also contact one of the following trade associations for additional assistance in locating the company that services your existing policy.

6. www.mibsolutions.com

If that doesn’t yield you any results, there is an alternative.  You can visit www.mibsolutions.com, and they will conduct a search for a $75 fee.  That $75 is whether they find something or not. 


 

Before you pay, better have a hunch that there is something out there for you.  I didn’t go for the fee since I was trying to find treasure, not lose it.

Get Your Benefits

7. www.benefits.gov

Get Your Free Money Treaure Hunting Online

Do you qualify for support from a governmental program? Are you a discharged honorable veteran?  These are just a few examples of assistance that you may qualify for if you head to www.govbenefits.gov.

Once there, you’ll have to go through an 80-100-question quiz answering some basic info questions. It takes you a mere five minutes, and once you complete the questionnaire, a printout will share what you may qualify for. 

Here’s some more info from the site:

The first of these initiatives to reach the Internet was GovBenefits.gov, an effort to provide citizens with easy online access to government benefit and assistance programs. The GovBenefits.gov mission focuses on reducing the expense and difficulty of conducting business with the government and increasing citizen access to benefit information. At the time of the site’s launch, it featured 55 programs, representing the ten original Federal agency partners. The website now includes over 1,000 programs representing 17 Federal partners.

Time to Get Free Money!

Although my quest to get free money online fell short, I’m sure there will be somebody who reads this post that will benefit.  If you find free money, be sure to contact me and let me know.  I’ll be sure to pass it on to the rest of my readers.

Update:

On October 31 and November 1, business and financial institutions must submit their unclaimed property reports to the various state treasuries. And for consumers, these dates are important to remember as they could be losing property that is rightfully theirs.

In fact, did you know that states can legally take money away from you after a period of inactivity? It happens all the time, and it’s called escheatment.

Each state has abandoned or unclaimed property laws that allow them to claim abandoned property (bank accounts, safe deposit box holdings, stocks, bonds, etc.) after a specific amount of time.

Generally speaking, three to five years is the trigger for dormancy – but it varies by state.  The bottom line is, the state could owe you money!

1 Cited Research Article

  1. CNBC.com (2023, Feb 1) States have $70 billion in unclaimed assets. How to check if any is yours
    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/how-to-check-if-youre-owed-a-share-of-70-billion-in-unclaimed-assets.html

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About the Author

Jeff Rose, CFP® is a Certified Financial Planner™, founder of Good Financial Cents, and author of the personal finance book Soldier of Finance. He was a financial planner for 16+ years having founded, Alliance Wealth Management, a SEC Registered Investment Advisory firm, before selling it to focus on his passion - educating the masses on the importance of financial freedom through this blog, his podcast, and YouTube channel.


Jeff holds a Bachelors in Science in Finance and minor in Accounting from Southern Illinois University - Carbondale. In addition to his CFP® designation, he also earned the marks of AAMS® - Accredited Asset Management Specialist - and CRPC® - Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor.

While a practicing financial advisor, Jeff was named to Investopedia's distinguished list of Top 100 advisors (as high as #6) multiple times and CNBC's Digital Advisory Council.

Jeff is an Iraqi combat veteran and served 9 years in the Army National Guard. His work is regularly featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Inc.com and Entrepreneur.

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16 Comments

  1. Rodney Jacobsen October 18, 2020

    Hi my name isRodney jacobsen I am wanting to find some shares I hAve mY u be able to help me

    Reply
  2. JOHN BECKER September 12, 2019

    I BOUGHT 1000 SHARES OF MASTERS ENERGY STOCKS BACK IN 1982-3 BY ALSTEDT , STRANGES & DEMPSEY AS VERY GOOD STOCKS DUE TO THE MAJOR OWNERS WERE THE PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH FAMILY WHAT HAPPEND ? ? I AM TOLD MY MONEY WENT TO HELL AND NOT INTO SAUDI ARABIA LIKE THEIR MASTERS ENERGY OIL DRILLING COMPANY DID HOW CAN MY MONEY FROM SUCH A BIG FAMILY JUST DISSAPPEAR? ?? ? UP IN SMOKE?

    Reply
  3. Michelle Garner May 20, 2018

    I want to see if I have any unclaimed money anywhere. And how to claim it if I do.

    Reply
    • Jeff Rose May 29, 2018

      Hi Michelle – Just check with some of the sites in this article, and that should get you moving in the right direction.

      Reply
  4. Allison @ House of Hepworths March 5, 2013

    Woo Hoo! We just found $50.15 from 2009! Thanks!!! !

    Reply
  5. Melissa@LittleHouseintheValley October 6, 2012

    Thanks for the great info. I was hoping to be one of the lucky ones, but nope, no forgotten money for me.

    Reply
  6. Kala October 4, 2012

    Small success story: I just claimed $130 about a month ago from Missouri’s unclaimed money site, www.showmemoney.com. It was quite nice.

    Reply
    • Jeff Rose October 4, 2012

      @ Kala Awesome! It’s always good to hear stories of people claiming free money online.

      Reply
  7. Veronica @ Pelican on Money October 3, 2012

    Jeff, it’s awesome that you gathered them all up in one post. I’ve heard of a few of them a few years back and actually went to see if I can find anything – Nope! I definitely tried unclaimed but haven’t tried others – maybe they’ll be something I’ll do this weekend 🙂

    Reply
  8. Sushan April 12, 2012

    I want to make alot of free money ,what i do,.?

    Reply
  9. Janis July 26, 2011

    I have an unusual dilemma with missing money. When I was younger, about 25 years ago, my father set up irrevocable trust funds for me. Upon his death, I started going through mountains of papers and haven’t found the statements from them. I know his cognitive function was seriously questionable (cancer went to his brain and he shredded tons of files before we figured it out.)
    So, short of visiting every bank in town, is there a way to search for the accounts? Being irrevocable, I know they exist “somewhere”. I also know it was one of the rare tasks he used a bank for – he favored credit unions.
    Would this “missing money search” reveal those?

    Reply
    • Carlos Fraser EA May 29, 2012

      First, I love the above article.

      Second it would be best to contact the IRS for the Tax ID number for that would be needed to open that account. That is if you know the correct name of the Trust.

      That is all I got.

      Reply
  10. Pat June 28, 2011

    Hi Jeff,
    Here is a free money success story, it’s kind of cut and dried, because I should be studying instead of reading your blog (I just love it!) Anyhooo, just thought I’d let you know, I’d heard about the naupa site before. I didn’t find any missing money there for myself but I did for my father, deceased mother, brother and sister!

    Reply
    • Jeff Rose June 28, 2011

      Haha. Thanks for taking a break from studying to comment! I’m glad you were able to make some of use of some of the pages listed. Now go back to studying. 🙂

      Reply
  11. Dennis Martin June 27, 2011

    Jeff,
    How about tracking down the value of old “penney stock” stock certificates when the transfer agent is nowhere to be found? Salamat po.
    Dennis

    Reply
    • Jeff Rose June 27, 2011

      Dennis,

      That is a tough one. The only thing I could suggest is finding out what happened to the transfer agent. Were they bought by another one? Maybe you can track it down that way.

      Depending on how old the stock is too, might have an impact. I have had several instances where clients had old stock certificates that proved to be worthless. They were cool souvenirs, but that’s about it.

      Reply

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