Ideas on money that should be claimed

[flash]

There have been many threads involving picking up "free" money, from company contributions, to ING acccounts, to finding money the government owes you, etc.

So, can we brain storm on all the different ways someone might lose free money?

I think of the rental security deposits and last months rent. It hasn't been peanuts for me, last months rent and deposit have been 1K - 6K (a few years ago). I've accidently paid last month rent twice once, and had a time getting it back. But I've cleaned carpets, washed walls, and plugged holes, and I've always gotten the full security deposit back plus interest.

My sister has NEVER gotten hers back, she thinks it's better to walk away and let the owner deal with cleaning it up the way he/she want it.


What other money gets left behind?

[jodi]

I just had an experience with this today. When DH and sold our house two and a half years ago, we paid the current taxes, as did the new owner (the taxes were due the week of closing). It was never pro-rated back to us as our attorney should have done. About a year ago I got a call from the current homeowner telling me that the tax office kept mailing her about an overpayment, and she knew it wasn't hers. I just finally got a promise from the tax office today to send it back to me ($470!) after I had been trying to get the necessary paperwork (unsuccessfully) from my former mortgage lender.
I could have never known it was there!

[Optsol]

Not quite falling under the left behind category...

But pricematching on tech purchases. I find about 25% things I buy at staples or compusa go on sale within the same month of me buying them... You can get the pricematch on the sale item by just watching the circulars, or checking online.

The other thing is real estate tax abatements. We're up to 4,900$ a year in property taxes. Every year our assessed value goes up, and we file for an abatement. You usually get denied, but if you keep after it, you'll eventually get some relief (the assessor just wants to get rid of you). Lopped off a few hundred 2 years ago. Which is a year over year win.

[Tree0164]

I actually got $225 dollars a few years back on an old insurance policy. I had to claim it through the state.

It was pretty nice to get that extra cash.

[sweeps]

A few more examples of leaving money on the table is not taking advantage of tax-advantaged plans at work: HCFSA, DCFSA, and in some cases, parking and mass transit.