A cash deposit for new Gas, Electric, Water, Phone or Cable service is a fairly standard practice. When people move or discontinue service, the utility company has 30 days to return this deposit. Of course there’s a catch—the consumer has to submit a request for the deposit return.
Many consumers merely have forgotten about this deposit. The standard practice for utility companies is to send a notice to the previous address of the service. The notice is often returned and the utility makes little effort to locate or to contact the consumer for their unclaimed money. All of these forgotten deposits add up to hundreds of millions of dollars. And that doesn’t even include the millions in deposits owed to thousands of businesses across the country! If you’ve ever moved or changed service providers, there’s a good chance you may have an unclaimed deposit waiting.