How often should I check my bank account?

I

inquisitive

Recycles dryer sheets
Joined
Apr 7, 2008
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I haven't checked my account info unless I have a specific reason to, including not even monthly statements. Sometimes I don't log in for a month, couple months. I didn't realize anything was unusual about this until I came across a blog and ppl discussed checking their accounts weekly, multiple times/week, even daily.

So how often should I check it? I guess there are a couple parts to this question

1. how often should I check to prevent fraud? I write maybe 5 checks/month, have a couple bill pays, receive some rental income, and everything else is paid by credit cards (how often should I check all my credit card accounts??)

2. are there some benefits (eg, motivational) in checking and knowing my checking account balance each day? Anyway it should stay small because I am planning on investing excess funds on a regular basis.

In the past I have not looked at my investing or retirement accounts more than twice/year but I will probably end up looking at it more since I am starting to have excess funds that I will add to positions over the year.
 
I have had my credit card compromised or had fraudulent charges on it four times over ten or more years. Therefore I check my cc and bank acct daily unless I am traveling and don't have a secure network. I have found two cc frauds by checking daily but have not had any problem with my checking.
 
I check Vanguard daily or almost daily. I check the bank every few days. I check the credit cards I use regularly every couple of days. Credit cards that I don't actively use I receive an email if I do use them (which would also capture any fraudulent charges). I wouldn't do any of this if I was traveling and didn't feel I had a secure network.
 
I do a quicken update at least once a week... that includes my checking account as well as my brokerage account.

If I've transferred money or had several transactions, I check more frequently... just to make sure the banks records match my records.
 
The Electronic Funds Transfer Act protects you for 60 days from the date of the account statement that reflects an unauthorized transaction from your account. To make sure that 60 period does not lapse I would suggest that all transactions be reviewed at least monthly.
 
I check every few days if I have a secure network, for all the reasons cited.

For someone who calls him/herself Inquisitive, you are not living up to your name! :LOL:
 
MichaelB said:
The Electronic Funds Transfer Act protects you for 60 days from the date of the account statement that reflects an unauthorized transaction from your account. To make sure that 60 period does not lapse I would suggest that all transactions be reviewed at least monthly.
Click to expand...

Michael,

Does EFT act apply to non-bank mutual fund companies like Vanguard?

I know that OP specifically asked about bank accounts, but when I checked into this briefly a few weeks ago, I got the impression that there might not be Federal protections other than the Investment Company Act of 1940 for my retirement funds.

I would think that for most of us, the retirement accounts would be much more of a loss than a bank account.

Thanks for any info.

-gauss
 
I don't check often, maybe once per month, but I do have notifications turned on to send me an email/text for transactions.

Most banks allow you to filter the notifications sent based on type and amount.

Not sure about Vanguard. I log on at least weekly there.
 
I had my identity stolen last year.


Guy from the UK used my name (and all my supporting information) to wire close to $200K out of a line of credit account.


Check your accounts often....
 
Big_Hitter said:
I had my identity stolen last year.


Guy from the UK used my name (and all my supporting information) to wire close to $200K out of a line of credit account.


Check your accounts often....
Click to expand...

Wow. Good contrarian case to the often recommended strategy of opening up a large HELOC before ERing.

Thanks
gauss
 
Yeah I'm probably never getting another HELOC.

:rant:
 
Big_Hitter said:
I had my identity stolen last year.


Guy from the UK used my name (and all my supporting information) to wire close to $200K out of a line of credit account.


Check your accounts often....
Click to expand...
what was the upshot? Were you held responsible for any of it?
 
Checking my checking and savings account balances wouldn't mean much. I have to review the transactions which I do when we get the monthly statements. Investment accounts email me on any activity.
 
gauss said:
Michael,

Does EFT act apply to non-bank mutual fund companies like Vanguard?

I know that OP specifically asked about bank accounts, but when I checked into this briefly a few weeks ago, I got the impression that there might not be Federal protections other than the Investment Company Act of 1940 for my retirement funds.

I would think that for most of us, the retirement accounts would be much more of a loss than a bank account.

Thanks for any info.

-gauss
Click to expand...
gauss, I agree retirement accounts security is far more important for most of us. Regretfully, they are not protected in this way. SIPC protects the account holder from failure but not theft. Vanguard's web site states a fraud protection guarantee that looks reasonable (here) and I think a Fidelity has something similar, but they have room to not pay under circumstances some of us could face.
 
when my ID was stolen I had etrade put me on a token card - you guys that have big $$$ in your IRAs should consider a verbal password and/or token ID


banks will also do the same thing to protect from wire fraud


regarding "siphoning", best way to protect against that is to monitor your bank accounts daily


heck you guys are retired, what else do you have to do?


:hide:
 
I had a B of A account I opened long ago and kept $84 in it since it was free and local. I signed up for email statements, which consisted of them saying my statement was ready online. They used to also show my balance, but that eventually disappeared.


Then last year I got a notice in the mail saying I owed them $32. Turns out they had decided to charge a monthly fee of $12. Probably gave some notification of it in some long ago statement that I never read. I closed out that account.


So I'd say check it at least once a month or per quarter.
 
Checking - once a week when entering transactions into Quicken, and then at month to go through the statement and reconcile the Quicken entries. Yes, I know I can download the transactions directly into Quicken, but it is not a large amount and I feel better actually entering in the data, call me old school.

Savings - check monthly. We never have any transactions going directly to them, only transfer to/from checking accounts.

Credit cards - we have 2 active ones that I check weekly. Others that we hardly ever use I check monthly, at statement time. I also have alerts turned on all accounts to text me immediately of things such as "card not present" transactions.
 
I usually have a reason to log in once or twice a week - to enter a bill pay, or download a statement, or whatever.

I also get a lot of emails from the bank notifying me of various account events.
 
Last edited:
I use Fidelity's cash management account rather than a traditional bank. I login to pay bills as needed and usually end up checking around for anything that looks unusual, including credit card transactions. I also login to Personal Capital once or twice per month to validate all recent transactions, and assign or correct categories as needed. This is very convenient since all our account balances and transactions are in one place under one login, including a few accounts outside of Fidelity. I also like Personal Capital for quickly analyzing spending trends, checking overall portfolio performance, asset allocation, etc. It's my free Quicken replacement.
 
I have Mint on my phone, which allows me to keep tabs on virtually everything. On average, I check it a couple of times per day.
 
Me too. I use Mint (I don't use it on iPhone or iPad) and check transactions every few days, on average, unless I am traveling.
 
I check my accounts daily. USAA allows me to add non-USAA accounts so I can see everything in one screen. It literally takes less than a minute to look at any activity, so I check at least once per day.
My DW hates it because she can never get anything past me.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum
 
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