I found an old uncashed check

Has anyone been through this?
I thought this would be pretty easy to get reissued.
It was a check from 2015, from my health insurance company.

Called the insurance company. Yes, still the same company. They said there was nothing they could do and I should contact the state for unclaimed funds. They no longer have the money, they said.

O…K…
Did that.
After supplying all the documentation, filling out the forms, etc etc, I waited.
Just got an email back from New York State - nope, they aren’t holding any money for me.

This is not a huge deal, it’s like $200. But it’s the principle of the thing.
Do I have to go to small claims court or something? Should I harass the insurer more?

1 Like

I think you’re out of luck! I’d just move on from it. So sorry!! (Usually checks aren’t valid after 90 days, and this is 7+ years.)

If not mistaken, this is called “escheatment”, where money owed to someone goes to a State’s escheatment fund. You should be able to immediately look this up online, as it’s a matter of public record.

Google “New York + escheatment”, and it should take you to websites where you can enter information to quickly see what, if anything, is there for you. This is what I got:

If nothing, I would go back to the insurance company and INSIST they resolve this. $200 is $200. If it is your money, it remains your money.

File a claim for the money (if it was from an overpayment, explain what it was for, when, etc). I really doubt it would escheat an uncashed check to the state.

The company should track it. It may still be in your ‘account’. Unlike with a utility account that is closed and the utility has to do something with the funds left in the account (send it to the state) an insurance company constantly has money coming in and out and may have applied the $200 to another bill, but they should go through and trace it.

1 Like

What does this even mean?

Not true at all.

Reporting Unclaimed Funds to New York State

New York State’s Abandoned Property Law requires certain entities to transfer abandoned money or securities to the New York State Comptroller’s Office of Unclaimed Funds. The Comptroller serves as the custodian of unclaimed funds until they’re claimed by the rightful owners.

Entities required to report and remit unclaimed funds include, for example, banks, insurance companies, corporations and state agencies. The funds come from inactive bank accounts, uncollected insurance policies or refunds, amounts due for undelivered goods or services, abandoned stocks, uncashed checks and more. (emphasis added)

I had a relative in another state with the same fact pattern, and the money was escheated to the state. Given that the insurance company TOLD OP that’s what happened, it’s worth checking again.

1 Like

The money may be held in another state. It will take you all of ten minutes to check the websites of other plausible states-- the corporate parent, the state where you live or lived at the time, Delaware (everyone’s favorite corporate domicile), etc. Good luck.

5 Likes

You need to claim money where you were residing when the money was owed.
A year I just randomly checked NJ and NY’s unclaimed fund sites. I actually found few thousand $$ from as far back as 20 years ago. They were some stocks from companies that I used work at, house closing, and even a refund check from a retail store. I did that for my kids and nephews, and they also found some money that owed to them.
If the insurance company had really turned over the money to the state then they should have it in their record. You probably could push the insurance company to give the money back to you, but the question is how much time you want to spend over $200.

1 Like

I did that. I went through the whole thing with the New York State Comptroller. But I didn’t check PA, (same place I was living 7 years ago).
Then I think I’ll go back to the insurance company

1 Like

Several times a day MA runs ads imploring folks to go to the unclaimed funds website and see if their name is there. I assume other states do the same? Maybe you just need to find the correct state–push the insurance company to tell you which state they gave your funds to.

1 Like

I’ll do that.
Checked my home state, nothing there either.
Who the heck knows where Blue Cross is domiciled; there’s one in every state. Sigh.

2 Likes

If you go to missingmoney.com they run multi state searches (Ohio sends you to this site so it is likely somewhat legit). I just found between $50-100 from an old Upromise account.

5 Likes

I just found some money under my daughters maiden name from the Trustees of Dartmouth College. Amount says undisclosed, so sent her the link to find out. Thanks for the link.

Sadly nothing for me though.

2 Likes

I just found a claim under my maiden name from an address I last lived in 22 years ago. The amount was undisclosed. I followed the steps to claim it. Just got an email confirming the amount - $1.56 :laughing:

3 Likes

Yep. That was our luck. I did that last year for H and me. Between us we had 3 unclaimed accounts. I believe the total was <$10, maybe even $5.

I think I’d remember if I was missing thousands!

1 Like

I found a lot owed to people with my name. Too bad I can’t claim their money! (Wrong addresses)

Searching under my maiden name I found nothing, but I did find what could be a really good one for my aunt as it’s an insurance company with an account for my uncle who passed away from Covid back in 2020.

Thanks a TON for that link! (Even if I had nothing.)

1 Like

That link is good, but it doesn’t have every state on it. Just keep that mind in searching. Each state has its own, that is the official one.

After this discussion, last night, I searched and found

  • a check for over $1000 to me!
  • some smaller checks for some relatives.
  • a safety deposit box for an estate that I am an heir!

It really does pay to look at these sites. Last time I did, for the same group of people, there was one small check that was too small to be bothered (pretty dumb, I agree). But in those intervening several years, more stuff has come up.

6 Likes

I worked at an in accounting at an insurance company for many years before I retired, at one point I sat next to the escheatment unit (also called the unclaimed property unit).

An insurer issues a check to the beneficiary and presumably holds funds in a bank account to cover the check. If a check just isn’t cashed the insurer can’t just keep the cash transaction open forever, and it can’t reclaim your money as an asset…so it goes through the “escheat” process. At my company, after a certain time, the folks in the unit would make calls to last known contact numbers looking for the beneficiary. Sometimes they’d find someone and then they could reissue a new check. If they couldn’t find anyone, then the funds would be sent to the state (I don’t know which state, I guess it would be the state of the last known contact??). And the state then keeps the dollars in their fund where people can look and make a claim.

Think of it this way, if you write a check to someone and they never cash it, you can keep the money and it’s a windfall to you. Insurers aren’t allowed to do that.

So when they say they don’t have the money, they really don’t, they’ve paid the claim dollars to a state.

6 Likes

I agree, except in this case, the insurance company claims it has escheated, but OP can’t find any record of that in either NY or PA.

I would definitely speak to a supervisor or the escalation team at the insurance company’s call center, and have the print-outs of the information from NY and PA showing the $200 has indeed not been escheated. Be willing to email that to them to demonstrate you’re correct.

One consideration: It may be that there is a time lag in when the company sent the funds to the state and how quickly it’s been recorded on the state’s escheatment website/records, so check that too.

Either way, you should be able to get this money back.

2 Likes