Check Your Bank Statements Regularly

[dusty]

Make it a habit to check your bank statements regularly and especially if you do any online banking.

At about 3:00 am this morning, will waiting for my coffee, I checked my online bank statements only to find that there were charges being processed by the bank (not yet posted) that I did not initiate.

An immediate call to customer service (at the bank) revealed that the charges were made against my debit card as a pinless charge. Card number has been blocked/closed and the account will be credited for the amount of the fraudulent charges so I am "out nothing" except my sense of security.

What might have happened if I had not checked the bank statement?

[JPG]

Very Good Advice!!!!!

Could someone please explain to me a rational reason to have a "DEBIT" card in the first place?

"CREDIT" cards make sense to me. The 'rules/bank procedures' that come with "DEBIT" cards are to me a deal breaker.

[garys]

Excellent advice. Since we have credit cards, debit cards, and electronic transfer of money, your bank accounts are no longer secure in any bank in the world.
Billions of dollars are stolen every year, and nobody wants to do what needs to be done to fix it.

[dusty]

We use a Debit Card as a financial management tool. Transactions made with the debit card are 'immediately' posted to our bank account. Thus no interest charges and the available balance (cash available) is 'real time'. It is sorta like carrying a wad of cash around. What disturbs me is what I just learned; it can be used without knowing the pin number.

We use the credit card only for those transactions that we do not intend to pay off within 'the billing cycle'. Items like Shopsmith Power Pro upgrade kits, vacation expenses, new tires, etc go on a credit card. Groceries, gas/oil, hand tools, hardware, Baltic birch plywood, glue and paint, etc go on the debit card.

Strictly a matter of personal choice.

[Gene Howe]

Our debit cards are only used at our bank's ATM. That may not be as secure as we'd like to think.
Our online banking is just receiving statements. Both our bank's have gone paperless.
We use credit cards for nearly all purchases. We never carry a balance. Large purchases are saved for and then using the CC gives us an extra month. Not as important now that the interest rates we get are so puny.

[JPG]

My 'thinking' re debit card vs credit card.

Debit card as Dusty mentioned are 'real time'. That IMHO is a disadvantage.

Credit cards are 'paid' monthly(or optionally carry a loan balance incurring interest charges). When paid monthly you get use of a 'loan' for a brief period of time at no interest.

A credit card gives you advance warning re fraudulent charges for up to a month rather than a brief pending charge period.

A credit card 'usually' incurs no balance until a gas purchase is complete(no presumed 'possible' charge up front for a couple of days). Any 'overage' becomes unavailable to the debit card account.

Having both requires extra watch dog effort.



BTW if thee needs a loan for a 'major' purchase, get a bank loan, not a card balance. Home equity loans are pretty reasonable compared to other options.



Credit card - many pluses.

Debit card - many negatives.

JMHO

[Gene Howe]

I am deathly afraid of personal debt. I'm sure many can handle it to their advantage. I'm NOT one.

[reible]

I have no debit cards, the rules for them are different then charge cards and I simple don't feel safe having them. I didn't know that there were pin less transactions, so I can add that bit information to my list of reasons to not have one.

(The only except is that I sometimes get a refund or $ back offers from places and they use things like visa debit cards. In those cases the values are low and I try and use them up as soon as I can.)

We use a cash back credit card for just about everything. I do have some cash that I carry, like $20 for times when I want to buy a can of pop or the like and don't want to charge a buck or two. The remainder is on the credit card which I use local and for online purchases. At the due date it is always paid off in full.

We almost never write checks anymore either, most of the utilities and the like will except either the charge card or direct fund transfers from the bank. We have these happen automatically so we don't forget to do them. Most years I write less then 12 checks, yes less then 1 a month in most cases.

I use a program called Quicken to keep track and help balance my accounts. I run it on a computer that is not on the network so while I have to do things manually I feel safer. Even then there are no account numbers or other information like that used. Like my CD's I assign numbers to like CD31 which would be pretty useless to someone else but I know what it is.

I check accounts several times a month. Sometimes I find I forget to write down a transaction so I catch then before balancing time. So I have a pretty good feeling for how much money I have at any given time and how and were I spent it. I can also look back and ask to see all the monies I have spent at shopsmith or woodcraft or common wealth edison or by categories or what I spent the last quarter, year or what ever.

I use the credit card cash back for saving up for a new what ever the current desire is. Some time its a bigger item like a camera but other times in a tool or electronics.

So that is how we do it.

[charlese]

...Credit cards are 'paid' monthly(or optionally carry a loan balance incurring interest charges). When paid monthly you get use of a 'loan' for a brief period of time at no interest....JMHO

I have to (compelled to) wonder why it is a good thing to get a no interest loan for one month, but it is a bad (silly) thing to get a 12 month interest free loan? [FITax]

[db5]

My bank required I have a TM/Debit card so I agreed with a $1.00 per day maximum limit. In 1969 I got an offer from Visa (that's when credit cards not issued by stores came out). Big words "GO NOW PAY LATER" with pictures of fun places to go. I thought, "That's a hell of a deal" - emphasis on HELL because it's the devil's own deal - go not pay later - with lot's of extra payments and charges. I didn't get credit cards until 1987 when an employer required I have one for travel. By then there were benefits: mileage rewards, insurance on car rentals, 60 day to protest a charge or buying something that wasn't as advertised, refund is something is stolen the first year, and others. I charge everything to credit cards and pay them off in full when due. It's been a good decision even though Dave Ramsey swears credit cards are awful and debit cards are wonderful.