Do you check your bank and credit card statements?

[Wheelskeepturning]

Inspired by a news item of someone who'd accidentally signed up for a subscription when buying some leggings. She only discovered 7 years later than she'd been paying £50 a month for a subscription to the company. The article then mentioned this had happened to a number of people.

It made me wonder how many people check their statements each month as I do.

Sorry, I thought I'd posted this in Chat.

Yes of course. Would be madness not to.

Not the statements but I log onto online banking at least once per week to look at my transactions. I also have a spreadsheet which tracks to make sure all my DDs have actually been taken, I've read too much about people who haven't had a DD taken and been given a late payment marker.

Yes, I check every morning whilst drinking my tea, on the app it takes two seconds. In the old days I recorded everything and ticked it off the statement.

Yes I do. I read the article too, I thought it was very interesting that the BBC didn't themselves run through the sales journey to see how clear it was you are entering into a subscription, for me that is another key piece of information as to whether these people have a genuine grievance. The other lady in the article hadn't checked her statements for 3 years! Its baffling.

I have found a number of things over the years that aren't quite right, a restaurant double charging for example. They also said they contacted their banks for chargeback- god knows why it should be the banks problem when you aren't keeping an eye on your finances.

Yes and check account balance daily. Also track interest rates on savings accounts and move money when eg special rates end.

I always used to tick them back religiously, but since online banking on my phone, I see all transactions as they go through, so would notice something like that pretty quickly.

Always. I can’t imagine not doing.
Ive found issues in the past when I’ve been charged twice on my debit card. We also had a large amount fraudulently charged on our credit card.

I check my app nearly every day.
I think i do probably because i don't have a lot of disposable income so need to know what's what.
I have a running total in my notes every time i spend so i know what i have left.
If i had plenty i maybe wouldn't check.

Yes. I have paper statements and check and annotate them before filing.

Yes of course.

I recently found that a very well known & apparently reputable campaign/petition website had set up a monthly subscription I absolutely did not sign up for (have still not managed to get a refund for all of it), and a year or so ago found that a large retailer who was meant to be giving me a refund had instead re-taken the amount owed to me.

Hate doing it though.

I check on the app most weeks. Tbh there are occasionally payments I can't place, like the odd £5 card payment from a week ago I don't remember. If there was £50/month going out, I'd definitely notice and work out why

I saw that on the news, how come neither her nor her husband noticed for several years...

I would notice £50 coming out of my account. I check transactions everyday and look over my statements regularly.

I check all my accounts daily. It's easy with the apps.

Yes I look at my app daily usually.

I do however, have a friend who divorced about 10 years ago ... he cheated and he set up a direct debit of £500 a month out of guilt. Told her he would do it for a year until she was back on her feet (no kids involved) .... still paying it 😃

Bank account yes, credit card no more than a scan. I buy absolutely everything online and my credit card statement is many pages.

Last year I noticed a dodgy transaction and it was fraud that had been going on for about 6 months, totalled £1k so I'm a little more motivated but there's so much I don't remember buying or companies that trade under a different name, and amazon just says amazon, there are several transactions each day there.

Pretty sure my house is insured twice too because one didn't cancel.

I do exactly the same and also used to use statements previously

I check current account and credit card transactions regularly and everything is recorded on a computer file. I have a few subscriptions that I keep an eye on / pause and I also have phone reminders so that I don’t forget to check they’re in the right place.

Yes. I check a few days a week. Ice spotted two fraudulent transactions in that time. I'm pretty hot on any subscriptions and cancel when not needed, I make a note on my paper calendar, or never start them in the first place.

I read that article and wondered how she missed it for so long.

I had a fradulent direct debit ... £30 a month ... set up. It stemmed from a hospital car park where DH scanned a QR code to pay for parking. Well know scam apparently, the bank said. They refunded it all.

Yes. As part of a job I had I used to have to try to trace people who were still paying the company by standing order every month to refund back their money. Sometimes luckily people realised and phoned up making my job easier.

These days with an app on my phone it is easier than ever.

regularly
a lot easier with apps these days

I check it at least weekly and would definitely notice £50 not being there when it should be.

No, but my banking app is set up to notify me of every single transaction, so I would notice any anomalies straight away (and did when my card was cloned a couple of years ago).

No because I have notifications on my app to tell me every time there’s a transaction on my account. If anything looks suspicious I have a look online then.