Boise News

Cash giveaway

Idaho Power Has $140,000 of Your Money

By jennifer gelband, 7-20-06

With what’s happening now, one might easily confuse Idaho Power with the Idaho Lottery, because the utility giant is giving away more than $140,000. Well, sorta giving it away. They want to return the pool of accumulated money to the people to whom the money belongs, so up went a web site for regular folks to check if they get some of the kitty.

Punch in your name and your city into a form at www.IdaClaim.com to see if you are a winner. If your name registers, you get directed to another site that has another form to print, complete and mail out in order to receive your loot. Of course they will verify this info at presumably extensive length before they mail your check, so I suggest not trying to scam a few bucks off they big guys.

The pool of money actually amassed from several sources, including unclaimed customer deposits. Idaho Power, whose parent company is IdaCorp, Inc., must keep deposits and unclaimed money between three and eight years after which the money is given to the residents’ states.

IdaCorp, Inc. disburses thousands of checks each year, and like that $0.12 L.L. Bean overshipping check I once received, some people never cash them. (My check is on the fridge for show, by the way.)

The state requires IdaCorp to send due diligence letters to customers owed money during that holding time, so before handing the money to the state, they are trying to find the rightful owners by creating the web site in addition to using the standard letter approach.

Check it out and see if you’ve won back your own money.

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.