Comments on: Reconciling Your Bank Statement

By: bigasssuperstar

bigasssuperstar — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:47:38 +0000

I suppose it says something unflattering about me that I’d see this and think — “do people actually *do* this?!” … ‘cuz I don’t.

I gawk at my online banking transactions so often that I figure I’ll notice anything unusual. Well, that, and that as long as there’s about as much money in there as I expect, I figure things are alright.

But this week I’ve tried futzing around with Quicken again. I still haven’t got it 100% figured out — transferring between accounts without messing everything up has still got me stumped. Last night I decided to tackle “our” accounts, after trying things out first on “my” accounts.

I printed out some analysis of “our” chequing, spending and credit card spending. My partner noticed a $75 charge to a guitar shop. Well, “we” don’t play guitar, but “I” do — and I’d recently paid $75 to have my bass guitar restrung. Or so I thought. Turns out I pulled out the wrong credit card to make the payment, and it slipped right past her when she was paying the bills a month ago.

So, that extra set of eyes on the expenses helped catch it. Welll, to be honest, it was her set of eyes — I missed it, too. But the extra step of taking a sober second look at the moneys turned up something that would’ve otherwise slipped by into history.

Good for us, sucks for me. Now I owe “us” $75. Poop.

By: Bjorn

Bjorn — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:38:38 +0000

I find it very sad that so many people don’t do this regularly. Banks don’t get a penny of my money, fees or otherwise. I’m not about to let them make any mistakes, especially in their favour.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:08:41 +0000

Excellent advice Gail.
As a semi-Luddite, I do check my ‘bank statement’ each day online, but have used a 3 column account book entering the debits and credits. I’ve kept track this way for many years. It works for me.
Haven’t found many banking mistakes, but was surprised one day to see that $10.00 had been taken out of my account after stopping in to the bank to get cash. Seems the teller gave me $10.00 too much and took it back out of my account. I think they were surprised when I phoned pronto to check it out .
I’ve found more mistakes at the grocery store when my groceries are being scanned…..

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:13:07 +0000

I check my accounts daily online and load my transactions once a month into Quicken (which has a reconciling process built in).

We’ve been double-billed before due to debit machine mishaps, and I’ve had incorrect restaurant bills fixed on my credit card due to incorrect tips entered. We kept our receipts so it was fixed up right away. If you don’t, the credit card company or bank might wait until the business submits their paper receipts before fixing it for you.

My dad once authorized a $1000 grocery purchase because he didn’t check that the amount was correct on the debit machine before putting in his pin number (the decimal was in the wrong spot). The cashier noticed it right away and reversed the transaction, but it could have been a big mess if she didn’t.

I always wait until the debit keypad says approved before handing it back to the cashier. Too many times I have seen it go through but they ran out of paper or the thing jams, so they want to do it again.

Keep your receipts until you see your purchases on your statements, mistakes might only happen once in a blue moon but they can save your butt when they do!

By: Michelle1

Michelle1 — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:15:47 +0000

I don’t always reconcile my bank statement, too lazy & tired sometimes, but I always read it over.
I do, however, check online banking every single day and compare it to my checkbook(on excel) daily. This keeps it in my face and on top of it so I’d see sooner than later if there’s errors. (Of course, the printed statement may contain errors the online doesn’t have).

By: Emma

Emma — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:53:30 +0000

Another yes for the importance of reconciling!

I was reconciling my credit card statement yesterday, and rather than having “bank error in my favour” (as Monopoly coined it), someone at AMC neglected to cancel my purchase (I didn’t authorize it and said I wasn’t prepared to pay the amount for the tickets and asked for my credit card back once I saw the total – it was supposed to be a morning matinee film!).

Obviously, they didn’t void it – but by tracking my expenses, I’m able to be aware of all charges that should be appearing, and called my bank last night to get this resolved.

By: Saver Queen

Saver Queen — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:48:01 +0000

Yes, it is very important to check – and not just your bank statements, check all of your bills – look carefully at your cable, phone, cell phone and internet bills. I’ve caught loads of mistakes on these. Sometimes I wonder if they actually do it intentionally! And I’ve found mistakes on my credit card too – either fraudulent or mistaken charges, or sometimes a restaurant that accidentally bills you twice. Also, you can ask your bank to reverse charges that you are not happy with.

By: Tracy J

Tracy J — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:10:58 +0000

Good stuff!
I am “bad” I don’t do the ENTIRE reconcilliation process, but I do carefully check it over and review anything anomolous with my husband.

About banks making mistakes… I been victim to LOTS of them over the years, the most impressive was just last year when I got my bank statement to see a deposit of over $48 THOUSAND!!!!! I phoned imediately (I didn’t want to be liable for that money, taxed on it nor accused of laundering or something!) and they fixed it. SURE it looked nice on the balance, but it was seriously alarming that that much money could so easily be waylaid by the bank!!!!

By: Tammy

Tammy — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:40:43 +0000

This is great advice as usual, Gail. Banks DO make mistakes.

I used to always reconcile my bank statement. Then I started using YNAB software to track my budget and it and my bank account always balance against each other (and if the don’t I need to figure out why) and since I enter things into YNAB every coupled days, I can easily tell if something is out of whack with my bank account.

If my bank deposited $1300 into my account in error, I would notice immediately.