Just wondering, does anyone balance their accounts anymore, I mean do all the math and verify your balance to the penny?
I used to do it many years ago when I wrote checks, and I still have all the old check books going back to college. Its funny to read them and see the expenses.
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I check them to the penny not because I don't trust the bank's computers but because I don't trust the accuracy of MY entries. I get in a hurry, the kids distract me, whatever, and I don't always enter the info accurately. Or I forget to enter an ATM withdrawal.
I used to when everything was paid for by check...but in my register I always rounded the amount of the check up to the nearest dollar (example: The check was for $80.24...I called it $81). In the AF writing "bad checks" was a no-no and punishable.
Since the use of debit cards has really overtaken writing checks and since I'm the only one that uses my accounts, I just check my balance every day using the internet.
Right before I retired from the AF in '05, I too, got rid of all of my registers going back to 1985 as well as the checks that I got with my bank statements...it was funny to see what I spent my money on.
I used to do it on a home made Spreadsheet, with monthly columns, and good tracking of my budget. It got to be too much work though, and I never found a mistake by the bank over many years. I guess Quicken had good programs too, but I like to do my own.
Debit cards is another thing, I used to like them, but I am not trusting them anymore. I use credit cards again, better safety against fraud.
If you want to be, press one. If you want not to be, press 2
Republicans are red, democrats are blue, neither of them, gives a flip about you.
We used to use a debit card but stopped due to safety concerns. Now we put everything on one credit card - groceries, gas, eating out, etc. We bill-pay 5 bills a month thru our checking account so we have free on-line checking but the rest goes on the card. The card gives points that can be used for travel, hotels, merchandise, etc. The last vacation we took points paid for air fare to Alaska. The card is paid off every month so there's no interest accrued. Works for us. BUT I balance the card statement every month. Again, the OCD.
Quicken is my best friend, I keep everything on it, and download from the bank every couple days since all our bills are paid by online bill pay.....that keeps everything synchronized and Quicken lets me know what's due, when it's due, and for how much. We use a credit card the same way Mtn gramma does, run everything we can through it.....pay it at the end of the month, and take our 1-5% cash back when it gets to a nice number. If there is ever a discrepancy between the bank or credit card and Quicken, even if just a few cents I have to find it, back when I used a check book I balanced it to the penny every month. Which is why I do all the finances in our house.....my husbands idea of writing checks was to call the bank, get the balance, then write checks up to that amount, which he only did once a month no matter when they were due. I'm much too OCD to do that.
I haven't written a check in years. I use my ATM card now and then. Some bills are automatically paid from the account. I use my Discover card for cash back and pay it off each month.
I use Quicken and online bill pay. I still balance to the penny. I also check activity every day or two. I've been with the same bank for over 30 years and they have only made one mistake but it was huge. They caused my mortgage payment to bounce, along with about 4 other payments. They charged me a separate overdraft for each at $36. I had made on online transfer and had put the confirmation number in Quicken. The bank never figured out why the transfer didn't go thru but they had to make every thing right thanks to that one little number.
You need to get out more Archer! Haha I'll have to check out Quicken again, I wasn't crazy about it when it first came out many years ago.
I can download CSV files online and import them into a spreadsheet, but I haven't done that in awhile either.
It does sound like Quicken is popular. If it loads directly from your account, I can see where that would save time and effort. Most banks have online spending report screens you can use also.
If you want to be, press one. If you want not to be, press 2
Republicans are red, democrats are blue, neither of them, gives a flip about you.
I'll have to check out Quicken again, I wasn't crazy about it when it first came out many years ago.
