Money Order Affidavit Form for Lost or Stolen Orders

To recover funds from a lost or stolen money order, you file the issuer’s affidavit or inquiry form, pay a processing fee, and wait for the issuer to confirm the money order hasn’t been cashed before they release your refund. The specific money order affidavit form for lost or stolen orders depends on who issued the money order, not where you bought it: a money order sold at a grocery store is usually issued by MoneyGram or Western Union, and you file with them. Whichever issuer you’re dealing with, one thing carries the whole process: the original purchase receipt with the serial number on it.

Which Form to File

Look at the money order itself, or your receipt, to see whose name is printed on it. That’s the company you file with. Using the wrong form wastes weeks.

USPS Money Orders

For postal money orders, you need PS Form 6401, the Money Order Inquiry form. You can download it from the USPS website or pick one up at the post office. The form asks for the serial number from your receipt, the purchase date, the post office number, and the amount. Sign it and present it with your customer receipt to a post office employee. Notarization is not required.¹

Western Union Money Orders

Western Union uses a Purchaser’s Affidavit, and this one must be notarized. You sign it in front of a notary public before submitting it. The form asks you to describe the circumstances of the loss and confirm you received no benefit from the money order.²

Western Union sets conditions before acting on a stop payment. You must have filled in the face of the money order when you bought it, reported the loss in writing immediately, and provided a copy of your receipt through their refund request portal.³ Handing someone a blank money order that later went missing makes recovery much harder.

MoneyGram Money Orders

If you have the serial number, MoneyGram lets you start a replacement request online. Without the serial number, you submit a paper search form by mail with a $40 research fee.⁴ Once MoneyGram locates the serial number, the refund process starts separately, and the refund fee is deducted from the money order’s face value.⁵

What to Have Ready Before You File

The most important item is the original purchase receipt, because it holds the serial number the issuer uses to track the money order through their system. Without it, you’re asking the company to search blind, and they charge extra for the effort.

Gather the rest before you sit down with the form: the exact purchase date, the store or post office where you bought it, the face amount, and the full name and address of both you and the payee. Having everything in front of you cuts down on errors that slow down processing.

If You Lost the Receipt

A missing receipt doesn’t kill the claim, but it slows things down and costs more.

MoneyGram requires a separate search form with every detail you can remember: exact dollar amount, exact date, the store name and address, and your contact information. The $40 research fee is non-refundable and covers the search alone, not the refund.⁴

Western Union accepts alternative proof of purchase. They suggest including the original store receipt along with a copy of a police report that references the money order number.⁶

USPS relies on the serial number from your customer receipt and instructs you to present it to a post office employee, so losing it puts you at a real disadvantage.¹

Processing Fees

Each issuer charges a fee, and none of them are refundable.

USPS: $21 for a lost or stolen money order inquiry. No charge if the money order is damaged and you still have it.⁷
Western Union: no fee for money orders with a face value of $5 or less, $5 for money orders above $5 but under $100, and $15 for money orders worth $100 or more.³
MoneyGram: refund fees vary by face value and come out of the refund. A photocopy of a cashed money order costs $18. If you lost your receipt, add the $40 serial number search on top of the refund fee.⁵⁴

How Long It Takes

Timelines vary sharply. A routine refund on an uncashed money order moves faster than an investigation into one that was cashed by someone else.

USPS won’t issue a refund until at least 60 days after the money order’s original issue date. That waiting period applies even if you file immediately. If the money order was already cashed, they send you a copy instead of a refund.¹

Western Union processes refunds and returns funds in the original form of payment within 5 to 7 business days once the claim is approved.⁸ Getting to approval takes longer when there’s a dispute or forgery involved.

MoneyGram takes about seven business days to process a standard refund request once submitted.⁵ If you had to file the serial number search first because your receipt was gone, add 60 days for that step before the refund process even starts.⁴

If the Money Order Was Already Cashed

When the trace reveals someone else cashed the money order, the claim shifts from a refund to a possible forgery case.

USPS sends you a photocopy of the cashed money order showing the endorsement. That copy is where you start when deciding whether the signature is forged and whether to file a police report.¹

Western Union runs a formal forgery claim process. You submit the notarized Purchaser’s Affidavit with supporting documents such as a police report, a copy of the money order before it was altered, or invoices showing the original debt. Everything must be mailed within 11 months of the date the money order was cashed. Western Union then sends a collection request to the bank that first deposited the money order, and the average forgery claim takes 90 to 120 days to resolve. Recovery is not guaranteed, because the depositing bank makes the final decision on whether to return the funds.²

MoneyGram provides a photocopy of the cashed instrument for $18 so you can review the endorsement and decide what to do next.⁵

The Affidavit Is a Sworn Statement

Treat the form as what it is: a legal declaration. The USPS form explicitly warns that anyone who provides false or misleading information faces criminal penalties including fines and imprisonment, along with civil penalties.¹ It references federal statutes including the law covering false statements to government agencies, which carries up to five years in prison.⁹

The USPS form also requires you to agree to repay the full refund amount if the original money order is later cashed by the intended payee or a financial institution.¹ Filing on a money order you actually cashed yourself, or one you know has already been redeemed, is fraud. Issuers have the transaction records to catch it.

1
United States Postal Service. PS Form 6401 – Money Order Inquiry
2
Western Union. Purchasers Affidavit for Money Orders
3
Western Union. Retail Money Order Terms and Conditions
4
MoneyGram. Money Order Search Form
5
MoneyGram. Money Order Frequently Asked Questions – Refund
6
Western Union. Money Order Request Form
7
United States Postal Service. Sending Money Orders
8
Western Union. How Will I Get My Refund and How Long Will It Take
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1001 – Statements or Entries Generally