Banking Tips
How can you gain control of your banking info so it doesn’t dip so low you’re tapped out? Here are some banking tips that will work now and throughout your adult life:
- Think twice about overdraft protection – If you want to avoid bouncing a check or seeing your account overdrawn, many banks offer overdraft protection services. But beware – these can come at high cost. The bank will infuse your account to cover the negative balance, but Interest rates are very high, many over 20 percent. If you can’t repay the amount they lend you, each month you’ll accrue more debt than you can cover.
- ATM receipts – Save these sheets – not stuffed in your pockets! – so that if you made a deposit or withdrawal and it doesn’t appear on your statement, you can contact the bank to correct the mistake and confirm your transaction.
- Sign up for online banking – This has lots of benefits. First, you can easily transfer from another account to yours, and vice versa. Tracking your spending is much easier. As checks or debit charges are posted, you see a dynamic representation of account activity, 24/7. Also, if you write a check but forget to record it in your checkbook, online postings will list the check number, the debit or withdrawal date, and sometimes provide a copy of the check, so you can review who it was paid to. Banks can make mistakes, so if you made a transaction that doesn’t appear, you can ask informed questions.
- Keep a physical check register – Even if you don’t write checks and just use an ATM or a debit card, keep a record. Enter all of your transactions so that you’ll have an up-to-date running balance of what’s been deposited and what you’ve actually spent. And don’t just list these items – use your calculator so you have a realistic balance. Don’t forget to subtract any incidental charges, such as out-of-network ATM fees, below-balance fees, and other charges that appear on your statement. Then you can balance your checkbook by comparing with your online or paper statement.
- Balance your checkbook – This is a simple activity that lots of people get lazy about. And everyone makes calculation errors. Balance your checkbook every month, as soon Do it when you get your paper statement or on a predetermined day each month. Here’s how to balance your checkbook:
- Write down the current balance that appears on your paper or online statement.
- Add to that balance any deposits made to your account that haven’t yet appeared on the current statement.
- Total all charges – checks, debit card charges, and automatic withdrawals that haven’t yet appeared on the current statement.
- Subtract the #3 total from the #2 total.
- That’s your actual balance. If it differs from your checkbook register balance, review your calculations and see where you came up short (or over – you’ll find that you might actually have more than you thought you did!)