April 16, 2013, Commerce, Texas --  Did you know that you may have money waiting for you? The Comptroller of Texas has more than $2.5 billion in unclaimed money awaiting its owners. One in four searches results in a positive result. Just last year, the state returned more than $159 million to its owners.

“I was amazed to find widows, deacons and others in our church who have money in the Treasury,” said Alton Biggs, chairman of deacons at First Baptist Church Commerce. “Even my own two sisters and ex-son-in-law had unclaimed money.”

Biggs said that process to make a claim inquiry is free, easy and straightforward. Approved claims of less than $100 have no fee associated with them, but the state does levy a fee of 1.5 percent on larger sums.

“Let us help you find out for free if you are one who may have forgotten to collect a refund from a utility deposit if you moved, or maybe a back account that wasn’t accessed for a long time and was sent to the State,” Biggs continued. “We’ll be happy to help anyone get what is already his or hers! We don’t want anything, but to help those who need help navigating the process.”

This event will occur at First Baptist Church Commerce Fellowship Hall on April 29 and 30 from 4:00 to 7:00 pm. The searches are free. Members from FBC Commerce and other local churches will be on hand to help anyone perform the search and explain how to submit their information for collection to the Comptroller’s Office.

Dr. Dorothy Ingram expresses surprise to find that she had unclaimed money from Texas A&M University-Commerce that had been sent to the Comptroller.

If you have access to the Internet, you can do your own search and collection by going to: https://txcpa.cpa.state.tx.us/up/Search.jsp.

First Baptist Church Commerce is located at 1401 Washington Street.