Balancing a checkbook?

[Jumpem]

I can't comprehend how people can't keep track in their heads. If it's a few cents off, I don't give a shit. Balancing a checkbook wastes 1,000* more money than I might be losing/gaining because I didn't account for the exceptional checking account interest somewhere.

Outgoing are 14 monthly bills (some of which are auto-pay), weekly checks for daycare, two people making debit purchases almost daily. Incoming are two direct deposit paychecks and reimbursements from a DCSA and a HCSA.

How could you track all of that in your head?

 

[Ksyder]

eh, I carry my checkbook with my wallet in my backpack, so when I spend I log it in the checkbook. Then I reconcile it with online banking a few days later.

I tried keeping track in my head when I was much younger and after bouncing my account a bunch of times in the college days when I had no money, I now keep track on the paper ledger. Works for me. I don't like to charge all of the petty purchases to the credit card because then I have to keep paying the credit card off and its kind of annoying when there are always pending charges. only if its a big purchase or someting that gives extra rewards points.

 

[dullard]

I can't comprehend how people can't keep track in their heads. If it's a few cents off, I don't give a shit. Balancing a checkbook wastes 1,000* more money than I might be losing/gaining because I didn't account for the exceptional checking account interest somewhere.

It isn't a few cents, it is tens or hundreds of dollars.

Twice in the time that I've been banking, the bank transposed two digits on a payment. Both times were not in my favor. True, I can keep most things in my head, but it gets damn hard to remember that a check payment was for $2718.69 instead of $2781.69 when you have over a dozen payments in the month. The online statement will never catch that type of transposed error because the bank's whole system is transposed (the bank has no way of knowing that the payment was to be $2718.69 instead of $2781.69 so all of the bank's accounts are in balance even with the error). Your only bet if you don't balance is to hope the company that you made the payment to is honest enough to tell you of the error.

Now, that said, my balancing is very easy. I have an Excel spreadsheet that calculates out my expected balance for the next ten years (in 5 day increments). Once a month I update the expected bill payments with the actual payments which isn't much work since many payments are the same month after month. So I have pre-balanced my checkbook for 10 years and it just takes a minute or two a month to keep it up to date. That minute or two has saved me well over a hundred dollars.

 

[lxskllr]

Outgoing are 14 monthly bills (some of which are auto-pay), weekly checks for daycare, two people making debit purchases almost daily. Incoming are two direct deposit paychecks and reimbursements from a DCSA and a HCSA.

How could you track all of that in your head?

I don't like autopay. The only thing on that is electricity, and it's a fixed amount. Telecom is susceptible to fraud, and other services are likely to be switched, with the associated clusterfuck when their software doesn't behave.

I also don't believe in joint accounts. That lends itself to clusterfucks, and disagreements. People should have their own accounts, and their own financial responsibilities they're willing to take care of.

Direct deposit isn't a concern. That gets reconciled when I get the statement. I don't work with money I haven't directly handled in some fashion. IOW, that money isn't mine to work with until I get the statement.

After all of that, it's easy to keep in my head. You might say that reconciling direct deposits at statement time is "balancing", but it only is in the most trivial sense. That requires a quick look to make sure the correct amount was placed in the account.

 

[crashtech]

Ignorance is bliss. Those who can't be bothered to verify the accuracy of their bank's information may be happy never having to deal with the fact that they are occasionally being stolen from. It might be called an acceptable loss.

 

[boomerang]

doesnt your savings acct give better interest? my savings gives like %.6 whereas my checking only gives %.05, so i keep everything in savings except a little bit in checking.

Yeah, that's actually what drove it initially. But now, these rates are so ridiculously low that it's not a factor. For me, it's just habit.

Like dullard, I've had the bank run checks through for an incorrect amount. This was in the business account, not our personal though. Both went through low, so the vendor was not paid in full.

 

[boomerang]

Ignorance is bliss. Those who can't be bothered to verify the accuracy of their bank's information may be happy never having to deal with the fact that they are occasionally being stolen from. It might be called an acceptable loss.

I see so very many people using their debit cards for virtually everything they purchase. A coffee at the gas station or lunch as Subway for example. When asked if they want a receipt, they say no. That's got to result in hundreds of transactions per month. Really makes me wonder.

 

[Imp]

I load everything on my credit cards that I check religiously. Then I make less than five payments every other week using my checking account online. So, no need. I've written maybe a dozen checks my entire life. My checkbooks are still in the teens (check #).

 

[HeXen]

I keep it in my head mostly. I just check my balance online and I know how much I have or can use to pay a bill. Done this since for some 17 years.
I use CC or cash for everything I purchase, at bill time, again I just look up what my account total is and I allocate funds where needed from that.

 

[xeemzor]

I load everything on my credit cards that I check religiously. Then I make less than five payments every other week using my checking account online. So, no need. I've written maybe a dozen checks my entire life. My checkbooks are still in the teens (check #).

This is the best approach. That way you can use Mint or some other budgeting tool to more easily perform analysis on your spending. Checks are an outdated system that need to go. We can easily replace it with better electronic systems.

I die a little inside every time someone in front of me pays for stuff like groceries with a check.

 

[kranky]

With online banking I spend more time watching my credit card bills (that I use for almost everything) than I do balancing my checking account. Quicken handles the checking account very well - download transactions, enter statement start and end dates, and ending balance, and if everything is OK it shows everything is balanced. Takes about a minute.

I have had more problems with credit cards - servers inflating a tip amount, duplicate charges - than I ever did with checking, although it's still pretty rare.

They just arrested a waitress here who had a nice little scheme going. If a group was dining and one of the group paid in cash, she would pocket the cash and run someone else in the group's credit card twice to cover it, and just not give them the receipt for the second charge. Went on for months. I suspect few of those people had been scrutinizing their credit card statements.

 

[Leros]

I look through my bank statement and sanity check everything. That's it.

 

[xeemzor]

With online banking I spend more time watching my credit card bills (that I use for almost everything) than I do balancing my checking account. Quicken handles the checking account very well - download transactions, enter statement start and end dates, and ending balance, and if everything is OK it shows everything is balanced. Takes about a minute.

I have had more problems with credit cards - servers inflating a tip amount, duplicate charges - than I ever did with checking, although it's still pretty rare.

They just arrested a waitress here who had a nice little scheme going. If a group was dining and one of the group paid in cash, she would pocket the cash and run someone else in the group's credit card twice to cover it, and just not give them the receipt for the second charge. Went on for months. I suspect few of those people had been scrutinizing their credit card statements.

You are CPA, you know how much fraud exists with checks. You have way more protection with a credit card. For example, try doing a charge back with a check or recovering your money from identity theft. The cash back on a credit card far outweighs the risk of any potential fraud for most people.

Granted, none of this applies if you are irresponsible with credit.

 

[RossMAN]

We rarely use our checking account, it's mostly used to:

Pay mortgage and other utility bills that don't accept cc's
Payoff cc's which offer more protection/perks/rewards

Just login every few days to make sure there aren't any major discrepancies.

 

[Engineer]

We rarely use our checking account, it's mostly used to:

Pay mortgage and other utility bills that don't accept cc's
Payoff cc's which offer more protection/perks/rewards

Just login every few days to make sure there aren't any major discrepancies.

9 out of 10 checks in my book are for school:

fundraisers
lunches
fees
field trips
etc.

Nearly everything else is online and paid either with a credit card or ACH. Of course, the credit cards are paid each month via ACH too.

 

[RossMAN]

9 out of 10 checks in my book are for school:

I don't even know where my check book is. I know I have one, last check was written about 3-4 years ago but it's probably gathering dust somewhere next to an old Maxtor 60GB HD which was a hot deal for $129, LOL.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

I have never balanced a checkbook. I use online banking and spreadsheets to keep track of things. Also pretty much never write checks. I don't use my checking account for much anyways, only for some monthly bills. Everything else is credit card, they give lots of working space so I don't need to worry about going over the limit or anything.

 

[nickbits]

I use checks to pay taxes and hoa dues. I keep a close eye on my online statements but I only verify the amounts are roughly correct. That's good enough for me.

 

[IronWing]

Property tax payments are the last holdout for paper checks. I suppose if I ever buy another car I would have to write a check for that.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Ignorance is bliss. Those who can't be bothered to verify the accuracy of their bank's information may be happy never having to deal with the fact that they are occasionally being stolen from. It might be called an acceptable loss.

I don't understand what is so difficult.

Go to online banking.
Check transactions. Did I authorize? Yes. . . Yes. . . yes, okay! All is good.
Now, do things add up right? *Opens calculator.exe* Okay, add a a few things and. . . everything checks out.

Okay, good to go! Don't have to do this again until next month. Or if you are more paranoid, then weekly.

Making a bunch of unusual purchases, starting a project, or something else that would need something more involved? Okay, make a spreadsheet.

Writing things in a checkbook? LOL!

 

[Red Squirrel]

I usually avoid writing cheques if I can but when I do I keep a mental note to ensure I keep that extra balance in the bank. My new bank has a nice overdraft system though, it takes money from the credit line if I overdraft, so at least I don't have to worry about crazy overdraft fees. Typically I check my balance every week or so and that's about it. If I do have money on the credit line or credit card and my balance is high enough I'll make a payment. No matter what I'll make a few small payments throughout the month anyway as I tend to forget when's the last time I did it, so I want to make sure I don't go overdue.

In a perfect situation I try to treat $1000 like 0. So anything over 1k I will put into savings or towards paying off something. Normally I try not to hold any balance on credit card or credit line but latetly I have not been keeping those empty since I've been working on my basement. It's crazy how the little things can add up so fast. Pipes, wiring, extra lumber etc.

 

[crashtech]

I don't understand what is so difficult.

Go to online banking.
Check transactions. Did I authorize? Yes. . . Yes. . . yes, okay! All is good.
Now, do things add up right? *Opens calculator.exe* Okay, add a a few things and. . . everything checks out.

Okay, good to go! Don't have to do this again until next month. Or if you are more paranoid, then weekly.

Making a bunch of unusual purchases, starting a project, or something else that would need something more involved? Okay, make a spreadsheet.

Writing things in a checkbook? LOL!

Well, in my mind you are doing the equivalent of "balancing a checkbook," in the sense that you check to see that your data is synced with the bank's data. In Quickbooks it's called reconciliation. Perhaps I am applying too broad a definition to the act defined in the OP, but I was assuming ppl who answered in the negative just decide to trust their bank info to be 100% accurate.

 

[OutHouse]

Do people really sit down and do this dinosaur act anymore?

if you have a checking account, why would not balance it?

 

[OutHouse]

Property tax payments are the last holdout for paper checks. I suppose if I ever buy another car I would have to write a check for that.

DMV is another. they do offer CC payment but tack on an additional 3%.

 

[OutHouse]

I have never balanced a checkbook. I use online banking and spreadsheets to keep track of things. Also pretty much never write checks. I don't use my checking account for much anyways, only for some monthly bills. Everything else is credit card, they give lots of working space so I don't need to worry about going over the limit or anything.

oh you are one of those... build wealth, not credit.