Unclaimed Property Notices- FAQs by Cardholders

Thank you for your inquiry. [This discussion is being recorded for future reference.] May I have your name and the identification number on the notice? *** Thank you. We have located your notice. Pursuant to unclaimed property statutes enacted by States in the U.S., we are required to report and remit unused property to the State if the property has remained unused for a period of time. This process of remitting a property to the State is known as escheat or escheatment. The unclaimed property statutes also require that we send notice to you in advance of escheat so that you have an opportunity to stop the escheat of your property to the State by responding to the notice and/or claiming your property.

The 50 States of the U.S. and several territories (the “States”) have enacted statutes that require the holders of unused property to report and remit the property to a State if the property is abandoned by the property owner. These statutes deem a property to be abandoned by its owner if it remains unused or unclaimed by the owner for a period of time specified in the statute. These time periods vary but typically range from 1 year to 5 years of non-use. For general information about unclaimed property and escheat visit missingmoney.com/.

Your property falls into a category of properties which we are required to report and remit to the State pursuant to its unclaimed property statute. The types of property that are subject to escheat vary from State to State. Examples are bank accounts, general purpose reloadable (sometimes called GPR) cards, payroll cards, government benefit cards, and gift cards depending upon the State. In your case, the property is a ____ with a value of _____.

The notice is required by an unclaimed property statute of a State. It is sent to you by us on behalf of the issuer or holder, ______, to provide you an opportunity to stop the escheat of the property to a State by responding to the notice and claiming your property.

The information will be subject to a privacy policy which can be found at ____.

A deadline to respond to the notice is provided in the notice. If you do not respond prior to the deadline, your property will be escheated to the State.

Alternative:

Remember that your Gift Card is a fixed denomination card. That means it is available for purchase by consumers in denominations of $5.00, $10,00. $25,00, $50.00 and $100.00.

[Alternative Answer One] A deadline to respond to the notice is provided in the notice. You should be able to use your property [card] prior to the close of business on the deadline. At the close of business on the deadline, the balance on the property [card] will be reduced to zero to carry out the escheat. At that time, you will no longer be able to use the property [card]. [Alternative Answer Two] We have designed a system so that you can use your property [card] before and after it is escheated to the State. For example, if the property [card] is a gift card then you may proceed to use the gift card as if it has not been escheated. [Note: Use Alternative One if the program is using the Straight Escheat feature. Use Alternative Two if the program is using the Escheat Override feature.]

Each State has a process by which you may claim your property back from the State. You can find that process on the State’s governmental websites. Typically, unclaimed property and escheat are addressed by an Unclaimed Property section of the Treasury Department of the State.