Yes, believe it, or not, there may be money out there with your name on it.
When there is no owner activity for 10 years in an account, and the financial institution cannot contact the client, the balance is turned over to the Bank of Canada. These unclaimed balances can be in the form of any of the following: a deposit account, bank draft, certified cheque, deposit receipt, money order, GIC, term deposit, credit card balance, or traveller’s cheque.
It’s very easy to search to see if you have an unclaimed balance. You need to go to this site: http://ucbswww.bank-banque-canada.ca/scripts/search_english.cfm and type in the name you’re looking for. It doesn’t have to be your own – if you’re feeling generous, you can look for family and friends as well! If any accounts match the name you’ve entered, you can click on the results listed, and you’ll see details about the account, including the last transaction date, outstanding balance, and originating bank.
If you determine the account is yours, you can click the Claim Form link to access a claim form, then print it out and send it to the appropriate address. You can find more details about how to claim your money here: http://www.bankofcanada.ca/unclaimed-balances/how-to-claim/
Some provinces also take possession of other kinds of unclaimed assets. There are Web sites for three provinces:
- Quebec: http://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/sepf/services/sgp_bnr/default.aspx
- Alberta: http://www.missingmoney.com/
- British Columbia: http://www.unclaimedpropertybc.ca/
Note: There may be sites out there that offer to track down your missing money for a fee. Don’t bother with them. They can’t put in a claim for you, and you can easily look for the money yourself.
Happy hunting! If you find anything good, feel free to toss a few bucks my way. 
Have you ever tracked down any missing money?
I claimed about $120 from an old Sprint bill in this manner. Cha-ching!
No missing money for me. I guess this is where it is a big disadvantage to have a very common name. Luckily I’m probably the only one in Canada with my name. I should tell my ex to look into this. I know she had an RRSP account floating around somewhere that she didn’t know how to access.
Eek – that’s scary! I don’t think I have any missing money, as I’ve been banking with the same institution for years and years. Same accounts, too. But I did one time fail to pick up a paycheque that was mine – it was only for about $50 when I was a teenager but I never did go get it.
MM – RRSPs are harder to find. Only some provinces track those. If she can remember the bank it was with, she should definitely start there.
Daisy – That sucks. 50 bucks as a teenager is a lot – heck, it’s a lot to me now! I think it’s fairly hard to recover lost wages unfortunately.
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Awesome. Thanks for taking the time. I’ll definitely check to this site to read more and tell my acquaintenances about it.