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Did you know there’s over 9.5 million dollars of unclaimed cash belonging to Roanoke-Chowan area residents?

And did you know that all you have to do to claim it is visit NCCash.com, search for your name, and fill out an application?

North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell said that under state law, money that has become undeliverable for a variety of reasons is escheated, or turned over, to the state’s Unclaimed Property Division for safeguarding until the rightful owners claim it. The unclaimed property consists of bank accounts, wages, utility deposits, insurance policy proceeds, stocks, bonds and contents of safe deposit boxes that have been abandoned.

Here in the Roanoke-Chowan area, the amount of unclaimed cash totals $9,691,244.19. Breaking that down by county: Bertie ($2,369,821.29), Gates ($1,357,423.94), Hertford ($3,282,803.11) and Northampton ($2,681,195.85).

NCCash.com is currently the custodian of nearly $1.09 billion in escheated funds, representing 17.7 million properties statewide. The money is awaiting return to the rightful owners after being lost, misdirected or overlooked.

More than 19 million owners are associated with those properties. There are thousands of claims waiting to be made in all 100 counties statewide.

Unclaimed property can result from a person or entity forgetting they are due money, or from a move of location and forgetting to provide a new address. It also could result from a typing error in a house number or zip code in an address, a name change, or data loss from a business converting its computer system. As society becomes more mobile and steadily moves to electronic transactions, the risk of having unclaimed property has increased.

“We’ve processed over 150,000 claims and returned over $42 million,” Folwell said. “But that’s just a small portion of what’s remaining to be returned. I want to get your money back to you so please visit NCCash.com.”