There are frequently articles in the newspapers about the vast amounts of money that goes to the state because it has been unclaimed for a long time.

How many of us have ever wondered whether some of it might be ours because a rich aunt, that we did not know we had, has died and left us a couple of million dollars. It probably will not happen to me but it does happen to some people.  There are even specialist companies set up to trace people in that situation.

What is more likely however is that you may have something a lot smaller that you have forgotten about. Maybe your parents took out an insurance policy for you which has matured. Possibly you have some dollars in a bank account that you forgot to update your address on when you moved to your new house many years ago. It will normally be savings that we have started but totally forgotten about.

If you search around here on the internet, you will find a number of web sites which specialize in just putting unclaimed money back in the hands of the rightful owners.  These might be on a local town, state or country level. It does not normally cost you anything to carry out a preliminary search.

When you find one where you have to pay, move quickly on to the next site. These searches should always be free for the initial look. Otherwise if you find that you have not got any extra money, it will have cost you money to find out.  That would be a bit counter productive.

If you have no success at the first site that you try, try another one.  You never know. It should not really give you a different answer but it is free after all.

Beware though of the common scam that you will find in your in-box or even your home mail box when someone tells you that they have a sum of money waiting for you if you send a couple of hundred dollars to them. They will probably tell you that the fee is just to cover the transfer costs or to cover tax.

Unfortunately, once you have sent some money to them, not only will they not send anything to you but they will probably keep asking you to send some more as they have encountered some more unexpected costs.

If it were true I can promise you that we not be asking you to send money up front.  They would deduct their fees from the capital they have for you before they forward it. You would also get the information from a professional rather than in a spam email.

Do not expect to become incredibly rich from this exercise however, if you find any they are normally for smaller sums. However if it your money and you are entitled to it It is better use in your bank account than theirs.

You would not walk to the garbage can and throw in a $10 note I am sure. Why throw away even small sums that you might find you have forgotten about.

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