There was this column in the local paper a few weeks ago about a fitness club that kept debiting someone’s checking account after the person had canceled the service. Terrible, awful, etc.
Then another columnist picked up the story, noting: “As someone who logs on to my bank account about once every week-and-a-half and who makes sure every charge on her credit card statement has a matching receipt, I can’t fathom how an adult would allow this to happen.” And the subsequent commentators also had fun at the victim’s expense, how she should have noticed the $20/month over a THREE YEAR PERIOD. And that’s true, of course.
But in attacking the victim, more than a few of them showed their own idiosyncrasies:
“I check my account multiple times a day and if my checkbook is off even .01 i have to find it.”
“I check my account Every.Single.Day. Even multiple times a day. I even have checkbook register app on my phone. If it doesn’t “add up”, I freak out.”
Since I’ve gotten access to online banking, I tend to check my primary checking account once, maybe twice a week, but never as frequently as daily. Seems checking multiple times a day is a sign of ADHD or at least obsession.
Do YOU check your bank balance online, and if so, how often? Do you balance your checkbook to the penny? I haven’t for years; both my wife and I tend to round the check amount up. For her, it’s a source of secret money; for me, it covers up some automatic withdrawal that I had forgotten that I had set up.
Unless there is some special reason, I usually only check bank balance online one or twice per month, in connection with paying bills. And if I do a cash withdrawal I get a receipt how much is left in that account.
When I had to keep a tighter budget and had almost no financial buffer at all, I kept more careful account. I still try to keep check of my monthly expenses as a whole but not every detail.
I check my balance (by itself) rarely, because I’ve never had a problem. All our bills, from mortgage to electricity to property taxes to pay TV are all deducted automatically, and pay is deposited automatically, too. Actually, I never write cheques anymore; I used to write maybe one cheque a year, but it’s been a couple years since I last wrote one. Everything is fully electronic, and seems to be perfectly balanced. So, while I’d like to think I’d catch a recurring debit that was no longer valid, I’m not so sure: There are so many bills to wade through.
I don’t balance at all, but I always know what’s in there and can check it from my cell phone any time I need to.
I do check my accounts online two or three times a week and try to be sure that the balance is accurate; given that we had some financial turbulence a few years ago I find maintaining the numbers is a lot easier than trying to figure it out when things have gone wrong.
We are fortunate in having our account with the local bank – they know us and viseversa. Hubby doesn’t like online banking – he is an avid viewer of scam programmesand is now in a position of not trusting anybody – good job he trusts me then!
Dx
I check about three times a week. (And I do balance to the cent, because if I didn’t, my head would hurt.)
So we go over the charges once a month when we do the bills. Isn’t that the usual way it’s done?
Generally, making fun of someone is a way of covering up fear. In this case, fear of doing exactly what the poor slob who missed a piddling charge for 3 years did. Maybe these snickering sneering fools should stop obsessively checking their online accounts and get a life, eh?