One of the biggest sources of lost money is unclaimed refunds. While most people are able to keep track of the payments they make, over the years they forget about refunds due to them. While government agencies and companies do make efforts to contact those who have refunds due to them, these efforts are often unsuccessful and the money just lies there until it is classified as

The IRS is sitting on a huge amount of unclaimed refunds, running into billons of dollars. In 2004 over 1.3 million people did not file their tax returns and, as per the IRS, most of them were due refunds totaling $1.2 billion for that year alone. Excess payments made to state governments or agencies are another huge amount of unclaimed refunds.

Another common repository of unclaimed refunds are utilities. When people move they often forget to get back the deposit they had paid. This money also lies with the utilities, which are usually unable to contact the depositor since he has moved.

This money, after a stipulated period of time, is handed over to the unclaimed property administrator of each state and stays there until the owner is located.

Another cause for unclaimed refunds is in cases where excess payments have been demanded and paid and were subsequently adjusted. Often the utilities are unable to contact the customer to make the refund.

There may be unclaimed refunds due to you. Over 60% of Americans have money in some form or the other due to them that they don't know about. Unclaimed refunds makes up a sizable chunk of this. Unclaimed refunds can run from a few hundred dollars to many thousands.

To see if you have Unclaimed refunds due to you from the IRS, contact the nearest office or visit their website and use the search for refunds option to check if you have money due to you.

In the case of unclaimed refunds due from or lying with the state, either from the government, insurance companies, utilities and so on, you will need to contact the state's unclaimed property administrator.

Many states have websites where you can search of unclaimed money, including Check out these unclaimed refunds sites that allow you to search for your share of unclaimed cash.

After finding the cash you can simply send in a form to claim the missing money and get a check in your mailbox soon!