I use my credit card for most everything; I want/use those miles to visit DD, SIL and GS on the opposite coast. I rarely take receipts if offered, but I do check online activity several times a week, if not daily. I can notice unfamiliar charges easily. It helps that I am the only person using that cc. When DH was also using that number, many charges were unfamiliar to me.
@OHMomof2 Discover does this as well. Of all my CC, I do like their online interface best.
In response to the OP, been using Quicken for years - and “hooking” my kids on it as well - to “balance” all my financial accounts.
Paperless, and I track credit card use during the month. All e-billing. I’m also a Quicken user, and I do a once-weekly download/update – so I’d see pretty quickly if there was an unusual charge. I trust the credit card companies to be able to do the math right … so the only real possibility of error would be either an unauthorized charge or a paper transaction that didn’t get entered properly. I don’t bother about saving or reconciling receipts – so I supposed it’s possible that there are math errors somewhere along the line when I hand-write a tip and total on a restaurant charge. (But I’d definitely notice if something was way out of line).
I use my cash-back credit cards all the time, but I don’t really spend all that much or make that many purchases-- so not all that hard to track.
I get texted on every charge to my credit card so it would be pretty hard to get stuff by me. Though to be honest, if a charge did get by me upon text, when I’m looking at a PDF of the statement, I’m really only looking for anything 3 figures and up, so potentially someone could fraudulently sneak something by me if it didn’t stick out.
Interesting. I have 3 cards from large banks (not the ones named so far tho) and none do the running total thing.
I literally get zapped (texted) as soon as a charge is put on my credit card. I just pay in full when the bill is due. If/when where is a fraudulent charge(s), I would know right away. I have gone paperless for years. The only time when I get a paper copy is when I need to prove my residency (driver’s license, voting).
I agree with other posters - what is there to balancing? If you recognize all charges then the balance is correct.
I use Gnucash and check banking and credit card activity daily. I mark transactions as cleared once they leave the land of “Pending.” No monthly reconciliations, no paper statements, just my daily headcount.
USAA got nervous and blitzed me to contact them when I ordered something online from overseas last week – got email and text at the same time, and usually a call to our landline isn’t far behind but I beat them to it this time. @CountingDown I would think a bunch of Uber rides around Baltimore would’ve set them off with practically a knock on your door!
USAA is usually good about checking on weird purchases, both legit and fraudulent, before they let them through. However, somehow they missed a $19,000 charge to a Canadian scaffolding company go through unchecked. I about died when I saw that one.
“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.”
You can’t remember the next day?!
@ClassicMom98 yikes!!
My Mom keeps every receipt and diligently checks them off every month. They have had several situations in the past 6 months where tips at restaurants were changed. Sometimes it was just a couple of dollars, once it was almost double the bill. I’ve started saving any receipt that includes a tip and double checking it.
@housechatte, we were really surprised. DH travels a lot for work, and uses our USAA card for things that would fall under per diem expenses, but ride charges in Baltimore?!? That’s only 45 minutes away from us. He doesn’t get to stay at hotels in Baltimore for work-related stuff. We’ve gotten texts from them for plenty of other things, but that cluster of charges was just weird.
I write down the amount of the tip on my copy of the charge slip and compare. That’s one reason I don’t like the heat-printed receipts – I don’t get a copy of the original these days, unless I start taking pics of them with my phone. Not sure that’s worth the trouble!
I also get a text when I use my charge card (Fidelity Visa). I love it! Text comes through instantly. At a restaurant I get the text before the waiter comes back with my card. Other cards don’t do as well - I get a text next day that gives me the total for the day.
I eyeball my statements looking at charges for reasonableness. Often I don’t remember a charge - especially online stuff - and don’t recognize the seller, but usually it’s a legit charge.
A few years ago I noticed a $9.99 charge on my account for a “joke of the day” being sent to my phone! Somehow I had been scammed into accepting it, or else they just started adding it to my bill. It had been going on for 4 months before I caught it. Got them all reversed but still… sheesh!
@TexasCollegeMom - Are you my sister? LOL My mother also saves all receipts and matches them diligently with statements AND has found discrepancies in tip amounts from restaurants.
Banks have told me that most fraud begins with charges under $20. I had 2 cards cancelled because of that.
One was a movie ticket at a Cinemax in Mexico. It slipped thru cuz I go to the local Cinemax.
I recently had a cc hacked. Charges were to two mobile phone companies, Expedia, and Airbnb. I asked my CC company where I was going. They were not amused! Card cancelled.
We religiously check because our card has been compromised in the past. We also use Quickbooks and get texts when there is a charge.
I think some of the posters don’t understand the difference others of us are drawing between”balancing” at the end of the month and “ monitoring”. Those of us who monitor based on texts and habitually checking our CC are pointing out that if you do this there is no need to keep receipts and “ balance”, and thus no reason to consider it problematic, as the OP, does, if there is no paper receipt. Electronic monitoring is more effective. If there is a wrong or fraudulent charge you catch it right away.
Not every charge is posted right away. If they post it a few days later and if it is a place I frequent, I wouldn’t know if the charge is legit or not. I recently got the AppleCard. It is a breeze to look up but that doesn’t help. There’s no way to check it off.
@TexasCollegeMom That’s the way I do it. I collect all the receipts and check it off when I get the statement. I would like to do away with the paper receipt if I can find a way to check it off.
I keep very close track. Every single charge for the last year I’ve been texted immediately. Every single one. There is never a delay. And why in the workd are you waiting for the statement ? At a minimum, why not check online habitually and then toss stuff?