Have you heard of unclaimed money? There are billions of dollars just waiting to be claimed from state governments in the United States.
Many people are skeptical about “free money” offered up in their name. In light of recent data breaches of all kinds, red flags popping up when a site asks for personal information like you social security number make sense. However when it comes to unclaimed money, rest-assured it isn’t a scam or a phishing attempt.
Unclaimed money exists for a variety of reasons, but namely because you may have set money aside in a smaller savings account and forgotten about it. You could have forgotten about a gift card. Or maybe you overpaid one of your utility bills and then moved to a new address. This abandoned money is considered unclaimed if there’s been no activity or contact with the account or money “owner” for a year or longer - but the period of time differs by state law.
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Where does New York fit in?
As you might expect, states with larger populations tend to have more unclaimed money. California, for example, has a total of unclaimed money nearing $8,000,000,000 which can only suggest that New York might be harboring a lot of unclaimed money. And that’s right on the money. New York has a total amount of unclaimed money hovering near $14,000,000,000.
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That’s right -14 billion dollars. This just so happens to make New York state the number one ranked state for total unclaimed money.
As far as New Yorkers are concerned, their average amount of unclaimed money is great. The average New Yorker is owed over $704.00. That’s more than enough money for a new gaming system, a low-ball on monthly rent, or enough money for a new laptop. There are a whole host of things New Yorkers could do with their unclaimed money.
Laws regarding unclaimed money vary state to state. In New York, it’s not possible to see the amount of money unclaimed a person might have. At least, it’s not possible to see who that person might be. Then again, this might be beneficial considering the largest sum of an individual claim in New York is $1,700,000,000. No one wants that kind of PR.
If you are interested in checking out to see how much money the state owes you, find out here.
