Search Difficulties Abound, but MissingMoney.com Can Find Your Cash

MissingMoney.com is one of many websites that claim to offer people the ability to find money that is owed to them. When leaving a job, moving, or changing any major policies, money sometimes has a way of getting away from us, and the place where we left it certainly isn't going to bother to track down every person who has accidentally left money behind.

Many of these sites are not sanctioned and are, in some cases, dangerous to use. It's not good policy to put your information up on the Internet for anyone to find, and anyone can create a website claiming to "find money," while in actuality, it's truly designed to take your money.

MissingMoney.com is the only condoned website by the states. According to the MissingMoney.com website, it was started by NAUPA (National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators) in 1999 and is run by ACS Unclaimed Property Clearinghouse.

Users can search by last name or by business name, with fields to further narrow down the search. The search is free, though the search is a bit counter-intuitive and some of the links appeared to be broken when I attempted to enter in my information. Though the initial search worked fine, the resulting page consisted of over 150 names that, ostensibly, could be further narrowed down. That part of the search did not function as expected, as in it sent me back to the main page. So did clicking on the State link on the homepage.

However, search difficulties notwithstanding, the site appears to be well crafted and easy to use. If you do not have a name quite as common as mine, you may find fewer hits (though I doubt you'll ever find your name if it is more common than mine: might be better not even to bother, John Smith. Per hour of work for searching, it might just not be worth it!) I did not find anything, but I did not expect to. The success stories on the site are encouraging, and there are clearly a great number of people to whom money is owed. Checking out this site only takes a couple of minutes. Even wading through the 150 results from my name took less than 10 minutes, to be honest. The payoff might be great!