Find My Unclaimed

Property type · NAUPA CK15

Unclaimed outstanding official checks

10,891
records of this type
$90.9M
total being held
$4,180
median record
$1,200,717
largest record

A cashier’s cheque, certified cheque or money order that was issued and never cashed.

These are bought for a specific purpose — a house deposit, a car, a settlement — and then the deal falls through, or the cheque is mislaid. The bank has already taken the money, so the value sits with them until it escheats.

What you will need to claim it

The cheque itself if you still have it, the purchase receipt, or the bank’s issuance record.

Every claim also needs government photo identification and proof of your Social Security number, plus a document linking you to the address the property was reported under. That last item is the one that stops most people.

Who reported the most of it

Unclaimed outstanding official checks: common questions

What is unclaimed outstanding official checks?

A cashier’s cheque, certified cheque or money order that was issued and never cashed. 10,891 such records are in our database, worth $90,904,763 in total, with a median of $4,180.

Why did this end up with the state?

These are bought for a specific purpose — a house deposit, a car, a settlement — and then the deal falls through, or the cheque is mislaid. The bank has already taken the money, so the value sits with them until it escheats.

What proof will I need?

The cheque itself if you still have it, the purchase receipt, or the bank’s issuance record. On top of that, every claim needs government photo ID and proof of your Social Security number.

Is unclaimed outstanding official checks still claimable after many years?

Yes. States hold unclaimed property indefinitely as custodian. There is no deadline and no point at which the state takes ownership — records from the 1980s are claimed regularly.

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Other kinds of unclaimed property

Counted from the California public unclaimed property file, refreshed weekly, covering records of $2,500 and above with no claim activity recorded. Category code CK15 follows the NAUPA standard property type list used by state administrators.

Find My Unclaimed is a private company. We are not a government agency and we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any state treasurer, controller, or unclaimed property office. You always have the right to file your own claim directly with the state for free.