Life is busy. I get it. You open your credit card statement, check out how much you owe, and then toss it on the pile to pay. Maybe on the weekend you'll get around to it but when the weekend comes, you quickly pay and never even look at all the charges.
With how busy life gets, it's so tempting to ignore credit card / debit card statements. After all, who wants to look at those several pages, line after line, of purchases? But here are three reasons why you might want to check anyway:
1.Check for charges that you didn't make: Sometimes this happens because a store clerk can mistypes your credit card number instead of someone else's or it's there because someone is trying to steal your identity. If you don't check your credit statements, you might not discover these charges that were billed to your credit card. Sometimes a small charge you might over look, so always double check each charge and if something is not yours call your credit/debit card company immediately.
2.Check for errors: It's so easy for store clerks to incorrectly type the numbers when they are charging you for something - so a purchase you made for $6.99 might show up as $6.99 on the cash register till but neither of you might realize that when they typed the number into the credit card terminal, they typed $9.69 or, worse yet, 69.99. That's a big difference and it's so easy to do!
3.Check for ongoing charges: One client bought something online for $50 and they happily used the service and never checked their credit card statements. What they didn't realize is that they were paying $50 per month on the purchase. When they discovered the purchase a year later, they thought they had paid $50 but had really paid $600. Checking credit and debit card statements regularly will help to protect against these expenses.
Credit cards are really good tools to help build your credit history but you need to review your cards regularly to ensure that you are being charged what you should be charged for. During the Holiday Season you might be extra busy but it is always important do make sure you are on top of your credit card statements.
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