Good morning, Raleigh. Erin + Trevor here, and you might have free money. Yes, you read that right — we said free money — and no, it’s not a scam nor does it require a complicated process in order to claim your cash.

We’ve covered countless topics in our collective 10 years as professional storytellers and — with that as context — what we’re about to share with you is one of the most underrated, impactful bits of info that we’ve encountered.

Anyone with a last-known address in North Carolina could have unclaimed money that the state is holding. It may be an old utility deposit you forgot about or a final paycheck that didn’t make it to your address before you moved.

If a company tries to send funds that aren’t delivered or claimed, the money goes to NC Cash, part of the state’s Department of the Treasury.

Then, the state tries to find the rightful owner. If that person has died, the appropriate family member can submit a claim, and there is no time limit.

Since we first learned about this about this in 2015, we’ve periodically searched for our own unclaimed money. We’ve both found a few hundred dollars we didn’t know we had, including $90 that Erin found Monday morning. It’s like finding forgotten cash in an old winter coat, but better. 🙌

Here, we did a search for Erin’s dad and found two matching results.

Okay, so how do I search for my money?

Click here for the state’s unclaimed money search.
For an individual, enter your first and last name in the fields + click “search.”
Review the list of names + previous addresses to see if your name is there (note, if you don’t recognize the address, it’s probably not you).
Select your name for each time that it appears, then click the “view claimed properties” button.
From the drop-down menu, select your relationship to the claimant (for individuals, select “owner”) and click “file claim.”
Complete the information form on the following page with your current address, etc. and submit the page.
From there, state officials will complete due diligence to ensure the right person is claiming the money. Payments can take ten to twelve weeks to process.

Fast facts + tips

$32+ million. That’s the amount of money NC returned to rightful owners or their heirs, local governments + reciprocal states in the past year.
As of July 16, 2019, there were more than 55,000 unclaimed properties in Wake County alone
Anyone without Internet access can call the Unclaimed Property Division at 866-622-2741 to search for possible claims.
Not finding anything? Try searching for common misspellings of your name and address, or check other states that you’ve lived.

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