When it comes to unclaimed property, such as unclaimed bank accounts, uncashed cashiers checks, unused gift cards, utility deposits or various overpayments, we are all equal.
When it comes to unclaimed property, such as unclaimed bank accounts, uncashed cashiers checks, unused gift cards, utility deposits or various overpayments, we are all equal.
In the US, states are required to take care of this money on your behalf. And it adds up—unclaimed money in California is more than $8 billion. This is easily searchable, by state, with the best place to start being here. It’s worth doing this regularly. In just a few hours, we found thousands of dollars for friends.
Join 500,000+ readers who start their day with Quartz.
By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
We also searched on behalf of a range of high-profile Americans. Like you, they may have realized that someone owes them money or may have simply forgotten about a rebate or an old account. We focused on California as the state gives the most detail, such as the total amount owed, but we also searched other relevant states, such as Texas and New York.
The largest unclaimed amount we found was $10,000 in uncashed cashiers checks for Steven Spielberg, followed by Tim Cook and Donald Trump for the same thing. The most curious, and perhaps the most ironic, were Bank of the West checking accounts to the value of $3,264 in the name of one Satoshi Nakamoto.
Here are some other examples:
And here is the list of the top 20 unclaimed amounts we found among the rich & famous:
Note: The “money found” only includes amounts disclosed by the states. Some states, like New York, do not disclose the amount of unclaimed money so we don’t know how much some people are owed, like how much Donald Trump has outstanding from NBC Universal, for instance.
