This is a guest post by Tiffany Thompson, affectionately known as “bloominglater.” She is an aspiring writer and musician who hails from Southeastern Virginia. She’s the author of helpyourselfblog.com and is a self-improvement junkie. She enjoys graphic design, vampire flicks, her iPhone, and the color orange. If you like this post, visit her at helpyourselfblog.com or follow her on twitter.
The other day, I was cleaning out an old wallet when I found a check—for $12 big ones! One problem: it was expired. Now, I am not a wealthy woman; my family is firmly entrenched in the middle class. That $12 would have come in handy back in July 2007, when it expired. I sat there, holding the check and wondering how much other lost money I had missed out on.
Many great debt repayment programs, like Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover which I have tried, stress selling unused items to raise money to fast-track debt repayment, or cutting miscellaneous expenses, like gym memberships. But, before we go slashing our budgets, we might consider the easily overlooked issue of lost money. This doesn’t just take the form of checks that have never been cashed, although this is a great place to start. This also takes the form of reimbursements and rebates that you may be entitled to.
If You’re Paying, See if Someone Will Reimburse You
One of the first things that I did after finding a check from 2007, was to try to figure out where I could find more money. I contacted my Human Resources department to see if they offered any wellness discounts and found out that my company would reimburse half of my monthly gym membership up to $20 per month. I had no idea! My gym membership of $29.99 per month was literally cut in half overnight. That was an automatic savings of over $200 per year! I passed the suggestion along to my husband and found out that his employer offered the same benefit. More savings! In addition to this, I found out that there were a range of other wellness benefits that I could take advantage of. I’ll receive partial reimbursement for a smoking cessation program and a weight management program as well.
Use Your Rewards and Rebate Points – They’re Betting You Won’t
As a marketer, I know that the first question that the “powers that be” ask when deciding whether or not to offer credit cards with rebates or rewards is what the redemption rate is. What a beautifully sinister practice. Companies can offer a card with rebates and rewards knowing that no one will take advantage of them. That’s a win for the company because they’re offering a benefit, which makes consumers happy. AND, that’s a win for the company because you’ll never take advantage of the rewards. So, when you’re looking for “lost” money, don’t forget to cash out your redemption points. I recently realized that I could cash out my rewards for a total of $75 in gift cards. I even had enough reward points left over to buy a set of cordless telephones. Before you cut up those credit cards, make sure you reap the rewards.
Recover Money from Old Checks
Ah yes—recovered checks. If you find an old, tattered check that is several years old, call the company to have the check reissued. You can also check with your state government to determine if there is unclaimed property out there (in the form of cold, hard, cash) that you may be entitled to. A good place to start is the Department of the Treasury for your state. I just plugged my information into the system for unclaimed property in my state and my name popped up. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I might have just found some more lost money.
Kelly’s Notes:
As someone who has worked as a professional organizer in the past, I can tell you EVERY client I worked with found gift cards, cash, checks, and even tax documents that netted them more than the cost of my services in most cases. One woman I worked for found tax documents she needed to file her taxes for 4 years earlier, and ended up with over $2,000 from her tax refund!
If you do find an old check contact the bank AND the person who wrote the check. In some cases you can still deposit the check.
Kelly
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