My wife just had a moderately scary experience - she got a letter from Ally Bank saying that because her account there (where she has all her savings) has been dormant since June 2020, they were required by state law (does not say which state; the letter was sent from PA) to turn it over to the state of her last registered address (California) within a month. This letter was sent in late August and the expiry date for their demand was two days ago (we check mail pretty infrequently so she just found it today).
What the fuck?
On top of that, she couldn’t log into her account online. She finally got a customer service person on the phone who, after about 20 minutes, was like “ok you should be all good”, and she was able to log in again and her money was still there.
But like…what the fuck? She logs in to her account every now and then (the same number that sent her a 2FA code tonight sent her one for Ally in March, which is probably when she downloaded the 1099-INT I have on my computer for taxes this year), what more do you need to do for your account to be “active”? She doesn’t move money in or out but that shouldn’t be a requirement to keep the bank from stealing your fucking money.
When they say “turn over” to the state it’s likely to the state controller office, it doesnt just disappear. I’ve had tons of stuff show up there but it typically takes a few years.
she’s likely not lying. laws are weird and strict around banking stuff. a dormant account is a dead person or a ticking time bomb of a security issue. either way it’s in their interest to take care of it.
I had a miniature nightmare like this in the last year or two. One of my insurance companies I came to find out had paid me out 10k’s+ in claims to a wrong address. I never noticed, I thought they were getting reimbursed to an account I never looked at. the checks expired and sat stale in their books. I started seeing them then show up in state controller letters to me (shoutout betty yee), figured out what was happening, called them to sort it out. It was a huge mess and I am likely not relaying it with the correct terminology but it was basically like, they could reissue the checks from the last 2 years but no further (may have been 3) and anything after that goes to the state controllers office. the controller told me stuff can sit in limbo for quite a while. I’m still seeing money trickle in, it’s some stupid unknown number to me so whether I recover it all or not is unknown to me but both the insurer and the state assured me everything unclaimed like that ends up there. The state will then typically go through the process of hunting the person down or their relatives (found a small amount of money my deceased father had that way). anyway that’s how I know about this stuff.
It’s “unclaimed funds.” It’s designed so that if people forget they have money in a bank account somewhere, it goes to the state comptroller’s office. People can search the comptroller’s office to see if they have any unclaimed funds. It’s designed so that banks can’t just effectively steal money people have forgotten about, not the other way around. She wouldn’t have lost the money. All you have to do to get it is usually fill out a form on the comptroller’s website and they return it to you. It’s generally a good idea to search yourself every few years, you’d be amazed at the odds and ends money you might find. Even next of kin, etc. can get the money. I think they hold it in an interest-bearing account as well.
I had the same thing happen recently. I mostly do online banking but I keep a Chase account around so that I can make large cash withdrawls for pokering or whatever at a physical branch to avoid ATM/cash advance fees (I only keep a minimum balance in the account then online transfer whatever I need a few days in advance). Haven’t played much since covid though so the account went unused. I logged in all the time cause it’s the same portal as my active credit cards but there was no transfer activity in the account for 2+ years. It disappeared from that portal after two years and I had to visit a physical branch to reinstate it. If I hadn’t taken any action to get it back by the 3 year mark they would have sent the money to the state.
This stuff doesn’t seem well advertised. Until it happened to me I had no idea it was a thing. It gives me more sympathy for people who are never taught basic financial literacy skills that I take for granted.
My other update on my forum request for help is that my 2021 tax situation is finally, finally resolved. Unlike for me, where the IRS was badgering me days after I mailed in the forms they wanted saying they hadn’t gotten them and insisted I find a way to fax (yes, in this, the year of our Lord 2023) them the same paperwork, they got to take their sweet time reviewing it, sending me not one but TWO separate letters saying that they were going to need another 60 days to review my shit. Finally, today, they sent me a letter proposing a resolution, in which they give me several thousand dollars instead of their original proposal in which I send them something close in size to the total stock windfall I got from my company in the first place. I signed and stamped that shit so fast. Being done and getting paid for the trouble feels good.
I guess one other update from past p0asting ITT is that I’ve accrued a few hundred bucks of free money from CIT Bank, and my interest rate is up to 4.92%. Would do again. Might ship the IRS money there, too.
It’s an A+ trick rich fucks do making taxes super unpleasant for plebes so they hate the IRS while doing all the tax fraud themselves without interruption.
I’ve gotten robo-audited and it’s awful. Their computer flags something, you get an automated letter, then it’s impossible to get anyone on the phone to resolve it.
“Prove those HSA withdrawals from 3 years ago were spent on medical care.” Fuck off
I once spent two years arguing with Louisiana if I lived in Louisiana in the tax year 2012. Their evidence? I sent correspondence to the IRS from Louisiana in 2013. No, that’s not a typo. My evidence? My owned home in Chicago, the bill of sale of my home, my wife’s W-2 in Chicago.
All of which wasn’t enough, they had like 5 things they were willing to accept as proof, all of which were impossible for me to obtain as I was currently living in New York in 2017-2019. So I kept telling them fine let’s go to a judge in the hyper-specific way they wanted. They’d delay, and we’d do it again.
I eventually found a picture of a driver’s license from Illinois in an old e-mail, which could have been from any time, and they took that as proof. All over like 1000 bucks, it was absurd.
It took me almost 3 years to get KY to accept that I had moved to another state. Hilariously their borderline abusive income tax collection people were a part of why I wanted to leave the state in the first place. I’m not saying self employed people don’t need scrutiny from the state, I’m saying the best way to do that isn’t to send me a quarterly tax bill where you 1) have made up nearly every piece of information on said ‘bill’ and 2) say that it’s overdue and if it isn’t paid immediately I’ll be in big trouble. This was the first piece of mail they sent me.
Basically don’t operate seasonal businesses in KY that don’t physically have to be located in KY.
I have not one but two states still sending me letters (burden of proof on me of course) demanding proof I don’t live there anymore. They are of course sending them to my primary residence in my current state.