topic Re: Lost CD from a long time ago. Advice? in Personal Finance

Lost CD from a long time ago. Advice?

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 22:41:18 GMT

I may have posted a question about this around 2 years ago when I joined this forum, but maybe not. While this is sort of an oddball topic, this is the only forum section that is slightly related to it.

I've been trying to chase down a Certificate of Deposit that was purchased for me a LONG time ago when I was a little kid. It was purchased in 1985 for $1000 at 10.84%, due to mature in 1995. In 1995 upon maturity (I was a minor still then) my mother rolled it over for another term. I'm assuming 10 years, but I don't know about that for sure as I have no documentation at that point. As with many things bank-related that are this old, the bank changed over several times over the course over the last 25-30 years and the funds evidently became "lost" at some point. The funds have not been turned over to Unclaimed Funds in any state in either my name or in my mother's name who purchased it. I have all the original paperwork on the CD from 1985 and am 100% sure that it was never claimed, as I found it in a safety deposit box nearly a decade ago. I've been off and on trying to locate it over the course of the last decade, but after spinning my wheels and being told again and again that it can't be found, I give up. After a year or so I decide to try again and that's where I'm at now.

Is there an avenue that anyone suggests I go down to increase my chances of a favorable result here? Should I go through the CFPB or BBB with the most recent bank that acquired the CD to put some pressure on them? Any advice on this subject would be great. Since it's never been turned over to unclaimed funds, in theory it may still be earning interest (albeit at a low rate today I'm sure) to this day. Even if it stopped earning interest at some point in the 2000-2005 range, I'd still think it's worth $3k+.

Re: Lost CD from a long time ago. Advice?

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 15:57:38 GMT

Have you tried writing the EO of the current owning bank? Also, are you a customer there otherwise?

Re: Lost CD from a long time ago. Advice?

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 20:39:42 GMT

Since you have been getting the run around, the only way is to get a lawyer, albeit an expensive undertaking. But it is nonsense to tell you the money is simply not there. It has to be and banks are required to keep paper trails of every single transaction. Either they are not looking to do the work investigating or it's been turned to the state (which you are saying they didn't do). So someone clealy is telling falsehoods here.

I don't think the CFPB will be of much help but a lawyer will get you an answer from them as they know the consequences of not doing so.

Re: Lost CD from a long time ago. Advice?

DaveInAZ — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 20:17:20 GMT

When you say you didn't find any unclaimed money have you tried Credit Karma's free Unclaimed Money search? They found unclaimed money in Nevada for me, I lived there 1999-2005 and the money was from my home insurance company. Which is pretty crazy as I've kept the same home insurance company here in AZ, so they should know where I live.

Re: Lost CD from a long time ago. Advice?

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 04:42:01 GMT

I've tried just about every unclaimed money site I can think of but I have not tried the one through Credit Karma which I will certainly do right away and report back.

Also good advice above on writing the EO of the bank. Unfortunately I am not a member of the bank currently, so no doubt it doesn't put me high on their priority list.

I did enlist the services of the FDIC back in 2014 when pursuing this lost CD and they were quite helpful and seemingly put in a lot of effort over the course of several months trying to help but in the end more or less said they weren't able to find it.

I do find it extremely frustrating as has been stated above there are records and Paper Trails for everything and it shouldn't be this difficult to find something!

Re: Lost CD from a long time ago. Advice?

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 04:40:23 GMT

@DaveInAZWhen you say you didn't find any unclaimed money have you tried Credit Karma's free Unclaimed Money search? They found unclaimed money in Nevada for me, I lived there 1999-2005 and the money was from my home insurance company. Which is pretty crazy as I've kept the same home insurance company here in AZ, so they should know where I live.

No dice with the CK search. It more or less came up with the same list of possibilities that other related sites have come up with... basically 15-20 unclaimed items for others with my name, but none of them are mine.

I really don't know if I see any value in going the lawyer route as someone mentioned above, as I feel like the fees involved would probably end up coming pretty close to what the CD is potentially worth in the end.

Re: Lost CD from a long time ago. Advice?

OldFatJarhead — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 23:12:15 GMT

This money will likely have been turned over to the state as unclaimed money many years ago. You will need to contact your state's department of revenue, attorney general, or whoever handles unclaimed property in your state. Keep in mind that the money may not be listed in your name, even if you were named as a beneficiary. It is probably in your mother's name, from what you've written. If you can't find it in your home state, check the home state of the bank (Probably Delaware if it's not a local or regional bank).

Good luck!

Re: Lost CD from a long time ago. Advice?

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 00:31:08 GMT

I've checked unclaimed funds in ALL states under my name, my mother's name and also my father's name as he was listed on it as well in the event that I died or something. I've never come up with anything in any of our names in any state. I've done specific searches in just the states that may pertain to us... state I was born in, my mother, my father, etc. Then I searched for all states associated with the bank(s) in question. Of course the individual state searches are sort of pointless when you can just search everything at once these days.

I have no problem contacting the state's department of revenue or AG, but I have my doubts that they'd give me a favorable response. It's the classic yo-yo cycle or point the finger game. Banks say it's got to be in unclaimed funds, unclaimed funds say it must reside in a bank.