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How Often Do You Check Your Bank Account? (Don't be this guy)

I get automatic notices on every transaction that occurs on my credit and debit cards. Typically if I place an online order, or swipe a card at a retail store, gas pump, or ATM, my phone alerts me while I am still at the register, pump, or ATM, or waiting on email confirmation for online stuff. Checking accounts send alerts when balance drops below an amount I set, or a transaction larger than a specific amount of my choosing is posted.

I download all financials into Quicken every day.

I also call shens on the headline "loses life savings"... really? Losing 23K sucks, but this was his business account, and that amounts to "his life savings"?
 
MtnMan said:
I get automatic notices on every transaction that occurs on my credit and debit cards. Typically if I place an online order, or swipe a card at a retail store, gas pump, or ATM, my phone alerts me while I am still at the register, pump, or ATM, or waiting on email confirmation for online stuff. Checking accounts send alerts when balance drops below an amount I set, or a transaction larger than a specific amount of my choosing is posted.
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Yeah that, plus mobile banking on your phone is pretty amazing for checking what's happening with all your accounts.
 
I'm old-school...I have a really simple manual spreadsheet that I update every day with what I spent. It's the "trust but verify" approach where I use a system to check things daily, but in a really minimal way, which is my preferred management style. It literally takes me 5 minutes a day to fully manage my finances every day before bed:

1. Open up my spreadsheet
2. Log spending (bank, card, or cash), which updates a simple sum function to show me my actually-available total
3. Check my digital financial account apps to make sure everything lines up (i.e. no weird transactions that I didn't do)

I've had my debit card number stolen twice, so I'm a little paranoid about it. These days, I don't use my debit card for anything...I have a simple credit card that I use in public (much easier to get things fixed from a credit card company vs. a bank, if your card gets stolen or whatever) & I use Privacy.com for online spending, which generates a unique credit card number per website & lets you set a spending limit per website. I keep everything on a separate email account for security, along with 2FA. It only takes a few minutes to setup this whole system, and literally just a few minutes a day to maintain, which gives you eyes-on validation on a daily basis so that you can trust your system, but verify operation.

That poor guy in the OP. I hope he sets up a GoFundMe. Really crappy what happened to him.
 
You usually have 60-90 days to contest charges or errors. I open my mail so I check at least once a month. But I have lot of accounts all over the place so sometimes account will go dormant on me. I had 2 accounts that went dormant this year. That's pain in the butt if you don't have local branch near by. I had HSBC account that went dormant and no local branch. I had to send notarized document so it wouldn't get transferred over to the state unclaimed property.
 
i stopped balancing checkbooks a long time ago

but i still log in and check the transactions a few times a week

also, dude owns a business and 23$k is his life savings?
 
Kaido said:
I use Privacy.com for online spending, which generates a unique credit card number per website & lets you set a spending limit per website.
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Some credit cards have that built in as well. I know with Citi you can easily generate a 'virtual account number' through online banking(and probably their app but i don't use it) and set a spend limit on it.
 
Icecold said:
Some credit cards have that built in as well. I know with Citi you can easily generate a 'virtual account number' through online banking(and probably their app but i don't use it) and set a spend limit on it.
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I don't worry about credit card. If someone steals my credit card info and charges stuff, I'm not responsible unless I was negligent. One simple call to the credit card company will reverse all charges, and I'm not out any money. I have so many different credit cards I can always use another card until I get replacement card. No big deal.

But debit card is different matter. Which is why I don't use debit card anywhere except at the ATM to withdraw money. I would never use my debit card to pay for anything. That's crazy and asking for trouble.
 
ponyo said:
I don't worry about credit card. If someone steals my credit card info and charges stuff, I'm not responsible unless I was negligent. One simple call to the credit card company will reverse all charges, and I'm not out any money. I have so many different credit cards I can always use another card until I get replacement card. No big deal.

But debit card is different matter. Which is why I don't use debit card anywhere except at the ATM to withdraw money. I would never use my debit card to pay for anything. That's crazy and asking for trouble.
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I tend to agree with most of that, and I never use a debit card at all(and wish they would still issue ATM only cards that do not have the Visa/Mastercard logo). It's still a pain to have to get a new credit card though and if you have it saved anywhere you have to change it, so if you're using it somewhere you're unsure if it's nice to be able to make a virtual account number. You're also missing out on credit card rewards while you wait for the card to be sent to you, so whether you have a ton of cards or not maybe that was the one that gets 6% on groceries or 5% back on a rotating category and now you're stuck with using a 2 or 3% everyday purchases card instead.
 
Icecold said:
I tend to agree with most of that, and I never use a debit card at all(and wish they would still issue ATM only cards that do not have the Visa/Mastercard logo). It's still a pain to have to get a new credit card though and if you have it saved anywhere you have to change it, so if you're using it somewhere you're unsure if it's nice to be able to make a virtual account number. You're also missing out on credit card rewards while you wait for the card to be sent to you, so whether you have a ton of cards or not maybe that was the one that gets 6% on groceries or 5% back on a rotating category and now you're stuck with using a 2 or 3% everyday purchases card instead.
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Trick if you want to use a debit-card is a second separate (and NON-linked) checking account. I've done this for Paypal/Ebay for many years.
 
Automated email every morning with bank account value, and once a month at bill pay time I skim the last month to look for anything out of the ordinary. Anything extreme happening and I'll notice.
 
Checking every day is too much, I find once or twice a week is the sweet spot. I never use my bank debit card for anything besides at the bank ATM. I also get notifications for ALL transactions on my bank accounts and credit cards.
 
Depending how complex your number of accounts, etc. are a financial aggregator like Mint or Personal Capital works well too. It's nice being able to see retirement accounts, etc. all from the same view. I had better experience with Personal Capital than Mint, but a lot of people use and like Mint. I'm sure there are others as well.
 
I would never under any circumstances use a third party 'aggregator'. With what we know of privacy rights and selling personal information, how could anyone trust that kind of thing?
 
Lost_in_the_HTTP said:
I would never under any circumstances use a third party 'aggregator'. With what we know of privacy rights and selling personal information, how could anyone trust that kind of thing?
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Mint is owned by Intuit. People trust their business finances hosted in the cloud in Quickbooks online, and a ton of people file their taxes through Turbotax. I can understand the concerns but I can see why plenty don't have an issue with it as well. Personal Capital's angle is that they're a brokerage and financial services company, so they call you all the time trying to sell you brokerage services. I mean, I'm not saying they don't sell obfuscated financial data, spending trends, retailer data, etc. of whatever they can make money on, but their main angle seems to be getting you to switch over to their financial services. Either way, I'm not sure it's any less trustworthy than all the people that happily use Robinhood, or a ton of other discount brokerages, etc.
 
Lost_in_the_HTTP said:
I would never under any circumstances use a third party 'aggregator'. With what we know of privacy rights and selling personal information, how could anyone trust that kind of thing?
Click to expand...
Same. No way I would use Mint or anything like it. Even when I'm linking different banking and brokerage accounts for the first time so I can ACH withdraw and deposit, I use old fashion verify debit deposit rather than verify accounts through third party aggregator service. I guess I'm a Boomer in that regard.
 
ponyo said:
Same. No way I would use Mint or anything like it. Even when I'm linking different banking and brokerage accounts for the first time so I can ACH withdraw and deposit, I use old fashion verify debit deposit rather than verify accounts through third party aggregator service. I guess I'm a Boomer in that regard.
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Some of us missed out on Tesla stock and have bank accounts that aren't large enough to matter 😛

All joking aside - any financial account should be setup to require dual factor authentication. Most brokerage accounts require you to reverify your dual factor to make transfers out. You get an email alert when a transfer is initiated. I don't see any larger issue with it than using Turbotax to file my taxes, which I'm also not incredibly comfortable with but do it because it's convenient. An aggregator is nice for keeping track of 'small accounts' most people wouldn't check frequently, such as a store charge card, etc. If you're at all into bank account or credit card churning it's basically a must.
 
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