If You’ve Ever Lived in Ohio, You Might be Entitled to Free Cash

Have you ever lived in Ohio? Even if was only for a few months, a year or even half your life, have you ever lived in Ohio? I’m not asking to make conversation, either; I’m asking for an actual purpose (and no, it’s not because I’m still bitter that our coach left our team to go to your team). I’m asking because the state recently came out and announced that they have a total of more than $2.3 billion in unclaimed funds, and it might belong to you – if you ever lived in Ohio.

Yes, $2.3 billion in unclaimed funds. Now do I have your attention? Let’s get back to basics; did you ever live in Ohio? If so, you’ll want to take note of this information. Actually, you’ll want to go ahead and stop whatever it is you are doing (online shopping for leftover Cyber Monday deals is going to be far more satisfying if some of this money is yours, after all) and get to work figuring out how much, if any, of this money is yours.

The state’s coffers is currently overflowing with money that no one has claimed in many years. It could come from anywhere; and some of it might be yours. It’s not an uncommon thing, either, and it does make sense to check with your state every so often to ensure that you’re not living with unclaimed funds just sitting around with your name on it. Every state has a government entity that holds onto money that has not been given to the people that it belongs to, and it becomes their job to find those people and issue them their funds.

What is an unclaimed fund? It’s usually something like a check that was never deposited or a security deposit or insurance claim that was never paid to you – or that was lost in the mail or something of that nature. And really, this applies to anyone who has ever lived in any state, ever, since you can go to your state’s website and find out if you have any unclaimed funds of your own. However, right now we are giving instructions to our friends in Ohio, so start taking notes.

For starters, you’re going to want to visit MissingMoney.com, the national resource for unclaimed funds. Now you will enter your first and last name and the state in which you lived or live and search. Go through the many results to see if you can find your own name and address so that you can claim your unclaimed funds now. There will be some paperwork, some proving you will have to do so that you can show the agency that owes you unclaimed funds that you are who you say you are, but it’s not overly difficult work. In fact, it’s going to be something that takes very little time to do and pays off in the long run.

And, yes, I tried it. And, no, I’m not missing any funds. Darn.

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