A Step-By-Step Guide to Finding Bank of America Unclaimed Money
Many Americans aren’t aware that they have unclaimed money they can rightfully claim. Most of the assets come from closed or dormant bank accounts as well as from deceased relatives because the heirs often aren’t informed about the inheritance.
If you have a Bank of America account you haven’t used in a while, and you think that your funds might be abandoned, you should know how to find and claim them stress-free.
Unclaimed Money Explained
Assets that didn’t generate any activity from the owner for an extended period—usually one to five years, depending on the state’s laws—are taken over by the state and considered abandoned.
Some institutions—such as Bank of America—will warn you before your money gets escheated so that you can take the required measures to stop it. In case you’re not informed about the unclaimed money, you can do an online search and see if you have any abandoned funds under your name.
Why Are My Assets in Bank of America Considered Unclaimed?
If you haven’t accessed your Bank of America account for a certain period, the bank is obligated to send you a letter informing you about the escheatment. They will ask you to follow the instructions to avoid having your funds turned over to the state’s property. Should you fail to do so, your funds will be marked as unclaimed.
Finding and claiming your abandoned property can be time-consuming, especially if you decide to do it on your own. While you have the right to claim it whenever you want, it’s always better and easier to prevent escheatment and keep the funds on your account.
Can I Do Something To Prevent Escheatment?
You can take some measures and prevent having your money marked as unclaimed even before Bank of America contacts you to inform you about the escheatment.
The best course of action is to call the bank from time to time to check your account’s balance. This will count as an activity, and the bank won’t have to pass over your funds to the state. If you have access to online banking, you can use it to check your account since it will be recorded in the bank’s system.
If you change the name, surname, address, phone number, and similar, make sure to inform your bank about it so that they can update the info on your account.
In case you know you won’t be using your old bank accounts in the future, you should consider closing them and withdrawing all of your assets to avoid having them marked as unclaimed.
How To Find Unclaimed Money From Bank of America
Have your Bank of America funds already been passed over to the state? You have two options for finding them:
How To Find Abandoned Assets With the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators
There’s no centralized government system for searching abandoned assets. Since each state has different laws regarding the escheatment, you’ll need to follow the instructions of the state in question.
The NAUPA is an association that helps American residents find the institution dedicated to dealing with unclaimed property in every state of the U.S. You can find any state’s treasurer by following these steps:
- Visit the NAUPA website
- Click on the Find and Claim tab
- Select the View the Full Map option
- Choose your state
- Follow the instructions on the state treasurer’s website
If you think that you have unclaimed insurance money, old bank accounts, or any other type of unclaimed property in more than one state, you should check the database of each of them.
Most treasurers will ask you to provide info such as your full name, Social Security number, current and former addresses, and similar.
How To Find Abandoned Assets Through MissingMoney.com
The Missing Money website allows you to do a multi-site search of treasurers in 42 states of America. You need to:
- Visit the website
- Click on Search
- Complete all the required fields
- Select the Search button
- Follow further instructions
Most states won’t charge any claim-related fees, but you should check the law of the state in question just to be sure.
DoNotPay Offers a Better Solution! Find and Claim Your Abandoned Bank of America Property in No Time
DoNotPay offers a super convenient tool that can make your search more efficient. If you want to avoid wasting time navigating numerous websites in search of unclaimed Bank of America assets, rely on us by following these steps:
- Open your DoNotPay account in a
- Choose our Missing Money product
- Type in your middle name and current and former addresses
We will go through every database and compile all of your abandoned money. We can also help you save both time and money by filing a claim on your behalf. To take advantage of this feature, click on the Claim My Property option, and you won’t have to stress over the claim or pay someone else to do it.
What Other Types of Unclaimed Assets Are There?
Besides the already mentioned unclaimed insurance, inheritance, and money from old bank accounts, there are many other types of abandoned property you can rightfully claim. Some of the common assets that can be marked as unclaimed are:
- Safe deposit contents
- Savings and checking bank accounts
- Unredeemed gift cards
- Uncashed checks
- Stocks
- Gold
- Jewelry
- Refunds
Various Reasons Why Money Goes Missing
Did you know that there are around 50 billion dollars of abandoned property in the U.S.? Some of the states with the highest total amount of unclaimed assets are:
State | Amount in Dollars |
New York | 13 billion |
Nevada | 800 million |
Rhode Island | 275 million |
Virginia | 1.5 billion |
California | 6.9 billion |
Connecticut | 615 million |
Texas | 3.5 billion |
One of the common reasons people don’t claim their funds is that they don’t know they have the right to do so.
Even Americans who know that they can get unclaimed money avoid filing a claim because they think that the process is too complicated. If they have small amounts of abandoned assets, they’d rather leave them in the state’s property than spend ages trying to regain possession.
DoNotPay’s Missing Money product is here to change that!
DoNotPay Is the Answer to All of Your Administrative Issues
DoNotPay will help you find and claim all forgotten properties under your name by scanning the database of each state, including:
We can also help you deal with other Bank-of-America-related issues such as blocking their spam emails or requesting a chargeback.
Besides ensuring you get your funds back, we can also assist you in resolving other everyday issues and help you deal with any administrative conundrum. Log in to your account in a and rely on our help when you want to:
- Defend yourself from stalkers and harassment
- Manage problems with credit cards
- File a claim for any warranty
- Waive college application fees
- Terminate any subscription or membership
- Start free trial periods without your credit card
- Contest traffic tickets
- Get in touch with customer service specialists over the phone hassle-free
- Request a refund from any company
- Appeal speeding tickets
- Report robocalls
- Block and report spam emails in a few clicks
- Serve anyone justice in small claims court
- Set up a DMV appointment in less than two minutes
- Send letters to inmates without worrying about the prison rules
- Ask for refunds and request compensation for delayed or canceled flights
- Handle unpaid bills
- Sign up for any service without phone verification
- Report spam text messages
- Find clinical studies and apply for them
- Protect your work against copyright infringement
- Find and claim all abandoned funds under your name
- Fight parking tickets