I am looking for a free or very low-cost method (less than $20.00) of
locating an old 401(k) account that I had with a previous employer.

The answer can be either telephone or internet based.  However, I am
really not interested in interacting with a financial planner to get
the information as I'm not interested in a rollover or any of their
pitches.  So, advising me to simply call Edward Jones Investments,
etc. will not suffice.  Also, I'm not looking to deal with one of
these "unclaimed money locator" outfits.

In other words, I just want to locate the account so that I may
contact the company and cash out, penalties and all.

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Clarification of Question by rockoon-ga on 13 Jun 2006 18:09 PDT

Contacting the employer is not an option.

Who is the employer?

There is no place where information on all 401K accounts are held. If
you cannot contact the employer, you will need to contact the
administrator of the plan.  This could be a wide variety of companies
and you'd be looking for a needle in a haystack.  You'd be much better
off trying to locate some old records, statements, pay stubs, etc.  If
that is not possible, then you can just start trying some of the big
administrators like Vanguard, Fidelity, etc.

first of all is your old employer still in business? if not them you
need to go to the court house of the city where they were and see what
happen to their business licence, then check the post office to see if
they left any forwarding address!!. or simply check with Securities &
Exchanges goverment office and find out what happen to the company and
the 401k's that they had invested for their employee.
coalminer

I believe the IRS, not the SEC, would be the better source for 401(k) info.