ByHow To Claim Unclaimed Money on PayPal
Millions of people use PayPal for transferring money online, and many users notice that their funds sometimes stay in limbo. If you see any amount marked as unclaimed in your account, learn how to get back your unclaimed funds on PayPal!
In case you want to see whether you are entitled to some other unclaimed assets, find out what other types of unclaimed money exist.
What Is Unclaimed Money on PayPal?
Your payment on PayPal can be unclaimed because the person you sent the money to hasn’t:
- Created a PayPal account
- Accepted the payment yet
- Confirmed his or her bank account
- Added the email address or phone number you sent the money to
Ways To Claim Unclaimed PayPal Money
If your payment has a pending status, you might be able to cancel your payment and get your money back. You can contact the seller to cancel your order and request a PayPal refund. You can also cancel the payment over PayPal by following these steps:
- Log in to PayPal
- Go to your Activity Page
- Click on Cancel when you find the pending payment
- Tap Cancel Payment
Use DoNotPay to check how long it takes PayPal to refund a canceled payment.
If you used your credit card to send the money, you can expect the refund to go to the credit card. In case you used your bank account or PayPal, your money will be sent to your PayPal balance.
You should know that you will get your money back automatically if your payment status stays unclaimed for 30 days. In this case, there is no need to cancel your payment.
Other Types of Unclaimed Money
When you have unclaimed money on PayPal, you get notified, and you can easily get it back. Did you know that you might be entitled to other unclaimed funds that you don’t know about? Here are some other types of unclaimed assets:
- Forgotten stocks
- Life insurance
- Pensions
- Old bank accounts
- Inheritance money
- Contents from safe-deposit boxes
- Credit memos
- Certificates of deposit
- Savings
- Traveler’s checks
- Annuities
- Rebates
- Overpayments
- Mutual funds
- Scholarship money
- Forgotten refunds
Bear in mind that assets such as land, real estate, and motor vehicles can’t become unclaimed.
How Does Money Become Unclaimed?
The most common reason why money becomes unclaimed is that people forget they have it. People often forget about insurance policies or uncashed refunds.
It may also happen that people are unaware of getting some money, such as an inheritance from a deceased relative.
When people change addresses, banks and other institutions might not be able to contact them. In that case, the institutions will declare the money people left in their accounts as unclaimed.
Where Is Lost Money Stored?
If banks or other financial institutions notice that an asset stays untouched for some time and can’t reach out to the rightful owner, they will declare the property dormant. After the dormancy period passes, the institutions will hand over the unclaimed property to the government.
The money is kept in state treasuries and may stay there for decades until the rightful owner claims it. According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA), states return more than three billion dollars of unclaimed money every year!
How To Find Unclaimed Money on Your Own
In case you want to try your luck and see whether a deceased relative left you an inheritance you don’t know about, or you want to check whether you have some forgotten assets, you can do so by visiting:
- The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) website
- The MissingMoney.com website
Searching for Unclaimed Assets via NAUPA
NAUPA promotes and leads the collaboration among unclaimed property administrators from:
- All U.S. states
- Kenya
- The District of Columbia
- A few Canadian provinces
- The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
You can use the NAUPA website to look for any unclaimed property under your name. Here is how to do it:
- Visit the organization’s Search page
- Select the state whose unclaimed property treasury you want to check
- Follow the instructions on the website of the state treasury you chose
- Fill in any required forms
- Finalize your request
Looking for Unclaimed Property on the MissingMoney website
NAUPA sponsors the website MissingMoney.com, which can also help you in your search for unclaimed assets.
You can enter your name only and get the results for all the states in the website’s database—you don’t have to check state treasuries one by one. If you wish, you can narrow down your search by adding a state and city. Bear in mind that MissingMoney.com doesn’t have a database of unclaimed money in all states.
Alternative Ways To Find Unclaimed Money
You can also visit other government websites to look for your unclaimed money:
| The Department of Labor (DOL) | Search for unpaid and unclaimed wages |
| Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) | Look up your money from banks that stopped operating |
| Bureau of the Fiscal Service | Check if you have any unclaimed money outside the U.S. |
| The Veteran’s Administration Benefits Department | Search for any unclaimed veterans life insurance funds |
| Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) | Find unclaimed pensions |
DoNotPay—The Easiest Way To Find Unclaimed Money
With DoNotPay, you don’t have to waste time checking different websites for your lost money—you have all you need in one place! We will search through various federal and state unclaimed property databases for you. All you need to do is follow a few easy steps:
- Log in to DoNotPay in any
- Choose the Missing Money option
- Provide your basic personal information—add your middle name and your previous addresses
In case we find any unclaimed money under your name, you can use our Claim My Property feature, and we will claim the money on your behalf.
Our app allows you to look for unclaimed assets in any U.S. state, including Utah, Alaska, Kansas, Oregon, Delaware, Georgia, Nevada, Montana, Maryland, Vermont, and others.
Use DoNotPay To Get Rid of Your Bureaucracy Nightmares
DoNotPay is a AI Consumer Champion that has provided solutions for small administrative issues to thousands of people. We received the 2020 Louis M. Brown Award for Access from the American Bar Association.
You can use DoNotPay to learn more about how to search for unclaimed money by social security number and protect yourself from unclaimed money scams.
In case you need more help with PayPal, you can get it from DoNotPay! Find out more about the free virtual credit card for PayPal verification and PayPal phone verification bypass.
With DoNotPay, you can say goodbye to bureaucracy issues! Access DoNotPay from any , and check out what other tasks we can take over:
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