EPISODE 14 ~ FIND YOURS: Child Support: Search And Collect Your Unclaimed Child Support Money
First, when a court orders a parent to pay child support, often that parent sends the money to the court, which distributes it to the other parent, rather than paying directly. If the court loses track of the parent who’s supposed to receive the money, it sits there and grows each month until the parent and children are found. Sometimes that goes on for years.
Another way that unclaimed child support happens is if the parent without custody stops paying and the government puts a lien against them. That means that when that parent starts making money or sells property that becomes public record, the government can swoop in and claim part of that money for the other parent and kids.
At Good Morning America, we once surprised an Ohio mom named Tami Schwarz with unclaimed child support she was owed. Summit County Ohio is one of the most aggressive counties in the country about going after back child support. Tami’s ex hadn’t paid child support in years, but Summit County somehow got wind that he had come into some money and pounced! For two years Summit County collected child support for Tami while trying to find her.
We were there when they finally did —and they presented her with a check for more than $8-thousand dollars. But that wasn’t all. The checks were going to continue —$332 a month for 6 years, adding up to a total of nearly $32-thousand dollars! And she was to rightfully receive that money even though her two sons were now grown and had children of their own, because she had spent all her own money to raise them.
It was a wonderful moment and a great story that left all of us a little choked up. Could there be unclaimed child support out there for you or a child you love?
• There are statewide sites you can search for Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.
• There are also sites to search certain counties in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, because often child support is handled at the county court level. Here they
are:
• Cook County, IL
• Elkhart County, IN
• Franklin County Auditor, OH
For places not listed here, you should search the name of the state and/or county and the terms “unclaimed child support,” “Undeliverable child support” or “Undistributable Child Support” and see what you come up with.
EPISODE 13~ EASY MONEY PODCAST
EPISODE 13 ~ FIND YOURS: Inheritance: Find Missing Money Left By Your Ancestors
As I’ve been telling you, at least 1 out of every 10 Americans has unclaimed money waiting. It may be hard for you to believe that you could ever misplace your own money. But what about your relatives? Your ancestors? You may be entitled to unclaimed money that they left behind. That’s exactly what happened to Carol Fox.
How did you first get the idea to search the unclaimed money database?
My daughter’s husband, my son in law, told me to look. He does it all the time because he thinks it’s fascinating. So I looked and there was all sorts of money for my mother.
What was the money from and how did it get lost?
Dividends from stock my mother had received as a gift from an aunt and uncle. She got lots of little checks for $5. And she never bothered cashing them, so they became unclaimed property! There were lots of little amounts that added up. She didn’t drive, so depositing it was a hassle for her. Your mother didn’t want to be bothered going to the bank, but she was a retired bank teller, right? I couldn’t believe it! I couldn’t believe that my mother, who had actually worked as bank teller, had let this stuff go. A bank teller who didn’t want to go back to the bank!!!!
You also found a small unclaimed money account for yourself, and your mother was a part of that story, too, right?
Yes, I found a small amount in my own name. From when I lived in California. It was from a life insurance policy. My mother had insisted that I get a policy so that if something happened to me, there would be money to bury me. When I moved to California, my mother never forwarded the dividend checks to me! I found that one under my maiden name. It was from the early 1960s.
Which state was holding the 2 unclaimed money accounts for you and what did it take to claim it?
It was relatively easy but it took a long time. I just had to provide an original death certificate for my mom. I sent the claim in at the end of summer 2016.
Then I started calling in 2016. They were lovely. I got the checks early this year. January and March.
OK, Carol, tell me: how much unclaimed money did you receive back from the state?
$29.58 from my tiny old life insurance policy. And $5940 that belonged to my mother! My sister and I are the survivors. We split the money from mom between us.
I hope that unlike your mom, you cashed those checks when you got them.
What did you do with the money? I spent the $29 on a pedicure!!!!
Perfect, what about the larger amount? What did you and your sister spend it on?
My sister got her house painted. l have been saving mine, but I’m thinking of having my floors refinished.
If you were inspired by Carol’s story and you’d like to search for unclaimed money in the names of relatives who have passed, there are two free websites that I recommend. Start with MissingMoney.com and then check unclaimed.org (note, that’s .org) for the 10 states that don’t participate with MissingMoney.
EPISODE 12~ EASY MONEY PODCAST
EPISODE 12 ~ FIND YOURS: Celebrities And Unclaimed Money: Which Celebrities Have Missing Money Waiting For Them?
Honestly, I don’t give a flip about famous people. But I DO care about convincing YOU to conduct a search. So I wanted to show you just how common it is for people —including famous people, including you— to have unclaimed money out there waiting.
Let me tell you the actors I found unclaimed money for. Ladies first:
•Blake Lively is owed $484.
•Delta Dental owes Salma Hayek $75… She does have great teeth.
•Saoirse Ronan has a whopping 17 separate unclaimed money listings!
Now a couple of actor guys: Ben Affleck does have unclaimed money, Casey Affleck doesn’t.
You notice, I’ve chosen all actors with unusual names? That’s because it’s easier and faster to search for them.
Now, let’s give it up for some Musicians:
•Beyonce. I don’t even know her last name. I just typed in Beyonce and found something and I know it’s for her because it was music-related.
•Ed Sheeran. My friend Judy is in love with him. I’m not even sure who he is, but Bank of America does and owes him more than a hundred bucks.
•I even found money for Iggy Pop and I didn’t even know that was a real name.
Let’s do a hat trick for some athletes:
Golfer Ben Hogan. Baseball player Barry Bonds.
Football player Joe Montana. They’re all missing some money. And, finally, Politicians and I’ll go back and forth across the aisle even if they won’t. Buh dum dum!:
•Nancy Pelosi could collect 4 different unclaimed money accounts for a total of $1,426 and I know it’s her because the address was the Rayburn House office building.
•Vice President Mike Pence has missing money in his home state of Indiana.
You’d think they’d know where to find him. But they don’t even try.
•BarackObama: The former president has unclaimed money in FIVE different places. Maybe he’ll have time to collect it now. DC, FL, MS, PA, and TX, Barack.
Donald Trump: Like his homes, his missing money is in New York and Florida.
Some of it is from unredeemed gift certificates.
•And finally, Bergdorf Goodman and Verizon Wireless have unclaimed funds for Hillary Clinton, listed at her Chappaqua New York address.
Only a couple of famous people who I looked up did NOT have missing money out there. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators says 1 in 10 of us is owed unclaimed money. Based on the celebrities I searched for, the stat should be much higher than that. So do a search today and let me know if you find something big or something interesting. I’m looking for lucky people to interview on the show. The first place to search for unclaimed money is the free website MissingMoney.com and the second is unclaimed.org.
EPISODE 11~ EASY MONEY PODCAST
EPISODE 10~ EASY MONEY PODCAST
EPISODE 10~ FIND YOURS: Unused Gift Cards: Regift yourself by finding unclaimed gift cards that were never spent
I’ve been covering unclaimed money for years and whenever I searched for
myself I wouldn’t find anything. I always thought, that’s me, way too anal to lose track of any of my money! But it’s a good idea to check back every year or so
and I did just that when I was preparing to launch this podcast and talk about unclaimed money every week. Sure enough, I am owed unclaimed money from
ticketmaster gift certificates I purchased for somebody that they never used.
I’m super curious which one of my friends or family is so lame that they didn’t manage to go see a concert or a show —on me— with the gift card I gave them.
But, somebody missed out and now I can reclaim that money if I want. In fact, if my recipient now tries to use their gift card, they will find that it is no longer valid because the District of Columbia is holding the money for me.
Not every state requires merchants to turn over unused money from gift cards,
and some states only force them to do this if the gift card has an expiration date. I counted and about a quarter of states now seize gift card money as unclaimed money. Here is a link to the entire list of states that seize unused gift cards as unclaimed money.
Meanwhile, some advice: The only reason I can get my gift card money back is
that I bought the gift cards online, so Ticketmaster had my name and address. If you buy a gift card in a store, there may not be a record. However, most gift cards give you a way of registering the purchase online, which is also smart in the event of fraud, so you might want to take a couple of minutes and do that.
Sometimes recipients register themselves as the owners of gift cards and, in that case, recipients may be able to make a claim as well. But regardless, unused gift cards are yet another reason to search for unclaimed money. And, as always, the best places to check are MissingMoney.com and unclaimed.org. Again, .org. Let me know if you find anything and maybe I’ll interview you on Easy Money!