Find money you forgot about, the free official way

List the states you've lived or worked in; get your free official search links and a scam checklist.

What it does

No bot required. Old paychecks, closed bank accounts, insurance payouts and deposits often end up as unclaimed money, and state governments hold most of it. USA.gov points out there's no single place to look: each state has its own free search, and there are separate federal databases for things like back wages, old pensions, FHA mortgage insurance refunds and savings bonds. NAUPA, the association of state unclaimed property offices, says to check every state you've lived or done business in. Paste this into any chat AI with your list of states and it builds a checklist of only the official searches that fit you, plus the FTC's warning signs: the government won't text you about unclaimed funds or charge a fee to release them. You do the searching and claiming yourself on the official sites.

Copy-paste prompt

No bot needed: paste this into Grok, ChatGPT, or Claude.

Help me check for unclaimed money the free, official way.

States I've lived or worked in: [list them]
Things that might apply to me: [e.g. had an FHA mortgage, had a pension at an old job, I'm a veteran with VA life insurance, had savings bonds as a kid, I'm the legal heir of a relative who passed away]
Use states and job types only. Don't ask for my Social Security number or any account numbers.

1. Using USA.gov's "How to find unclaimed money from the government" page, make me a checklist:
- My state unclaimed property office for each state I listed. Tell me to reach each one through the state map at unclaimed.org (from NAUPA, the state administrators' association) so I land on the real state site, not a look-alike.
- Only the federal searches that fit what I told you: Labor Department back wages, PBGC pensions, VA life insurance, HUD FHA refunds, IRS Where's My Refund, TreasuryHunt.gov for savings bonds, FDIC or credit union failures, SEC funds, or U.S. Courts unclaimed funds.
2. Tell me to search with my current name, any past names, and the cities I lived in.
3. Remind me that searching the official state sites is free, and to follow each site's own claim instructions if I find something.
4. Add the FTC's scam warning signs: the government won't call or text me about unclaimed funds, won't ask for a fee to search or release them, and won't pressure me to hurry. Don't click links in unexpected texts. Report scams at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
5. Remind me to check again once a year.

Never fill in claim forms or share my information anywhere for me.