Idaho has over $150 million in unclaimed money – and it could be yours
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IDAHO FALLS – The Idaho State Treasury Department has over 150 million dollars of unclaimed money and property – and it could be yours.
Over 800,000 Idahoans have money in the state database and while it may sound like a scam, thousands are realizing receiving checks for old accounts they were unaware of or had forgotten about.
“ I didn’t know about it until somebody said something to me,” Kendra Freeman, an Idaho Falls resident, said. “I went online and I searched for my name and it said I had two different claims under me.”
One of those claims was for five dollars. The other unclaimed account had over a hundred dollars.
“My son has one for a hundred plus,” Freeman said. “It was an old bank account that I opened for him when he was young and I had forgotten about it.”
The unclaimed money comes from several places – such as uncashed checks, utility deposits that weren’t returned, life insurance policies families didn’t know about, and forgotten safe deposits boxes full of valuables.
“Our mission is to reunite that money with their property owners,” John Faltin, the business holder specialist with the Idaho Department of Unclaimed Property, said. “We get a lot of coin collections, we get a lot of wills, we get old war bonds – all sorts of interesting items.”
State laws require the treasury department to hold the property and money until the items are claimed by the rightful owner.
To find out if you have unclaimed money or items, click here to file a claim.
Let us know how much unclaimed money the state is holding in your name. Email news@eastidahonews.com.