Results: It's In The Mail

A Toronto man says Canada Post recently delivered a package that he ordered online nearly eight years ago. After a Canada Post delivery person rang his doorbell on May 6, Elliot Berinstein said he found a package from the online retailer Well.ca sitting on his doorstep. Berinstein said he was initially confused because he hadn't ordered anything from the e-commerce site in years. When he opened it, however, it all began to make sense. At the time he ordered the product -- a hair cream -- he contacted the company, who investigated, but Berinstein didn't follow up since the product only cost $5. Have you ever ordered something that either did not ever show up, or showed up months (or even years) later?

Robbie Shifman of Toronto says as a young boy his grandparents would buy him Canada Savings Bonds as gifts. He cashed in most of the bonds years ago when he used the money to buy a car, but he was shocked when he got a letter from the Bank or Canada a few months ago, saying he still had one bond left from almost 20 years ago. His savings bond is for $1,100 and has been waiting for him to cash it in since 2001. Have you ever forgotten about money in a bank account or in a savings bond, in a situation like this?

Millions of dollars are sitting right now in unclaimed bank accounts. At the end of last year, the Bank of Canada was holding approximately 2.1 million unclaimed balances worth $900 million. If a bank account has been dormant for 10 years, the balance is turned over to the Bank of Canada. Unclaimed balances of less than $1,000 are held for 30 years. Amounts more than $1,000 are held for 100 years. To find out if you have missing money, go to the Bank of Canada website, search for unclaimed balances and type in your name. Given the present financial crisis we are all going through right now, as a Canadian, do you think you will search to see if you have any forgotten money waiting for you?

If you are in the U.S., you can use your state's official website to search for unclaimed property. Americans can search for and claim their unclaimed money for free using their state's database or the national database, MissingMoney.com. Simply search for your state's name + unclaimed property (i.e. "Florida unclaimed property"). In most cases, your state's site will be your first search result. The site that you're looking for will have a ".gov" address. According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA), 1 in 10 Americans have unclaimed property. If you'd rather not search for your state's site, the NAUPA has a handy directory. Simply select your state on their interactive map and you'll be redirected to your state's database. Will you search to see if you have any unclaimed money, if you are in the U.S.?