Do you do it? I still get printout receipts and balance awhen I get the statement. It looks like more and more they are going paperless. I wouldn’t know how to balance it if I didn’t have the receipts.
We are paperless. I’ll glance at the statement to make sure it all seems kosher.
You can always print out a PDF of your monthly statement.
Looking at my credit card balances and activity is part of my daily browsing. It’s easy to spot any problems that way. No need to “ balance”
Agree with above. I just check it every day to make sure everything looks right. I wouldn’t even know what balancing means, frankly.
We are paperless also. I check credit cards and bank accounts online daily just to make sure there is nothing there I’m not expecting.
Paper here.
Yes, I can check the thing on line (and I do), but I like to have the paper ones for my files, and don’t see a good reason to use up my own paper & ink.
But if you check daily why do you need to balance?
Not balance? I’d sooner … um, I can’t actually think of anything to put there. I’ve used Quicken for years. Balancing is simple. I think I’ve caught maybe one error in the last 20 years, so maybe it’s not a great use of my time but that’s on me. It makes me comfortable.
Balance? Why?
I check to make sure the purchases are ones I made and not some crook. Then I pay in full each month.
What is there to “balance”?
It’s a pain, but I use quicken and itemize each statement as it comes in. When I go to do taxes, everything already categorized.
I would use the term ‘validate each charge’ vs balancing.
Yes, I validate each charge.
I keep very close track of any and all mail orders and returns. I’ve caught a couple of minor mistakes in that area.
I catch fraudulent charge not infrequently. Once or twice every two to three years. Without paper receipts/statement, there’s no way I can remember.
I totally know what I buy. I would easily recognize a purchase that was not mine.
And if I catch a fraudulent purchase (which has happened) I contact my CC company ASAP…they close the account and issue me a new one. And that’s a PITA.
At this point, my credit card company has caught more fraudulent charges than I have…and they notify me to ask if the charges are mine. None have been that they have caught.
We did it for over 20 years. Have gotten slack about doing it, though we do check for questionable transactions (and found a boatload of them related to Uber-type transportation a couple years ago). Somehow USAA didn’t questions lots of rides in Baltimore late at night, and by the time I got the statement, the perp had run up about $1300 in charges!
We use Quicken, though we don’t download transactions, in large part because we still use a 1994 version and it’s totally incompatible at this stage.
The main reason I like to enter the transactions, though, is that it becomes a diary of where we went and what we did. I can’t tell you how many times one of us has asked “when was the last oil change on the Outback” or “what was the name of that restaurant we went to in XXX four years ago” and I can answer that question in the time it takes me to hop on the computer. It is one of those things that has made my life far easier and more pleasant!
Now I should get back to doing it, because I am SOOOO far behind and I can’t always find what I’m looking for…
I look over my transactions regularly.
But a MAJOR pet peeve of mine is that they don’t give me a running total online or in print.
Say the balance beginning of statement period is $100.
One charge comes in for $20, running total would be $120.
I make a payment of $50, running total is now $70.
My bank does it, why can’t my card company?
‘I catch fraudulent charge not infrequently. Once or twice every two to three years. Without paper receipts/statement, there’s no way I can remember”
Which is why many of us check our CC every day. I’ve timed it. It takes 2 minutes per day. More and more places don’t provide a paper receipt. And why in the world do you need a “ paper statement” to check for fraudulent purchases.
@OHMomof2 American Express and my Citi cards both provide this.
Our Costco Visa provides a running total of charges, credits, and payments.
I can’t remember what and where I spent money without the receipt unlike @thumper1. I might be in the early stage of Alzheimer’s.
@Iglooo I honestly don’t use my credit card that much. I use it for travel related things, and really that’s about it. I don’t do orders through Amazon weekly, or anything like that. Really, my CC purchases are pretty few.
Makes it very easy to remember!