gmsc’s money tips #22:

I’ve been getting serious on these posts, so it’s time for a little more fun with money.

It’s always fun to find money, such as that quarter down in the cushions, or the dollar in your pocket you forgot about. Sometimes, you can lose much more and not know about it. If you live in the US, you might want to check out Missing Money.com – it’s a complete database of records from all the US states’ unclaimed property divisions. It’s free to search, and if you do find you have missing money, the site also links directly to each state’s treasury office, where you can follow up, and can also usually proceed claiming your lost money for free (they usually will need appropriate documentation, though).

Speaking of official US sites and money, you’re probably familiar with the fact that you have the right to check your credit report once a year for free. If you ask most people about a site at which to do this, they’ll probably mention FreeCreditReport.com. However, that now-infamous site has numerous consumer complaints about it, as their service is not free.

The real site you should be using to check your credit annually is the one set up by the US Federal Government for this purpose: AnnualCreditReport.com.

Why am I putting this in the middle of a “fun” post? Because the FTC is warning people about FreeCreditReport.com, and doing so by parodying the freecreditreport.com ads (FTC ad# 1, FTC ad #2)!

Ever gone to a cashier, and they have trouble giving you the correct change? You might want to send them to FunBrain’s Change Maker game. You can play in various levels (Easy, Medium, Hard and Super Brain), and in various currencies. In the game itself, you’re given the amount of the purchase, as well as the amount of money given to you. You get the change by clicking on the various bills and coins that you need, with 1 click giving you one of the bill/coin you clicked on. If you need more than one, you simply click on the bill/coin again. When you think you have the right change, you click the go button. If you get it right, your score increases, and money accrues in your “piggy bank”.

Ever seen origami done with money? You can learn to do some yourself at the Money Origami site. You can do things like glasses and bowties, and even spiders and butterflies!

Dan Tague is an artist who also folds bills, but not in origami fashion. As you can see in that link to his gallery, he folds bills in a way to reveal messages in amusing and amazing ways, similar to the 9/11 “hidden images” on bills that were so popular a few years ago.

I started this post talking about finding lost money, so I’ll finish by returning to that. Did you ever wonder where those bills in your pocket have been? There are ways to trace its path online. If you’re in the US, you can use Where’s George? to find out where your bill has been (assuming someone else already entered it when they had it, which happens with surprising frequency). Canadians can use Where’s Willy?, and Europeans can use Euro Bill Tracker.