General Chat

Ann, I worked in banking for 16 years and it never leaves you!

I keep a running account of bank transactions and credit card transactions for my main account any the household account (utility bills er ). This book is balanced against my on line bank account statements at the end of every month and I don’t let up until it balances to the nearest pence. Comes from working in local government and civil service finance departments I think. And keeps my brain active.

We have a joint account and OH checks with me if he doesn’t know what a payment is for and sometimes asks the bank. A friends husband is known to just cancel a payment if he diesn’t know what it is. Much to the annoyance of his wife as she could have told him if he had bothered to ask.

Complaining to the press is a bit like those people who can’t get on a plane because their passports has the wrong amount of time left on it. Don’t they ever read the papers they are complaining to?

A year or two ago a friend of mine found she had been paying for Amazon Prime for several years without realising it but she didn't complain to the press. She rang Amazon, said she knew it was her own fault and asked them to cancel it forthwith. They checked, found she had never used Prime and refunded all her money. I thought that was good customer relations but I don't think she has really learnt her lesson.

We're the opposite and OH has spreadsheets set up for credit cards and bank accounts. Everything is entered and what we have down checked against statements.

Well Im old school as I have paper statements and keep a record of all my accounts in a spread sheet book. So i balance the book to my bank account every few days.

Its no excuse to say, "oh i didnt know i was paying that." Everyone is responsible for their own statements and checking them.

Florence in the hebrides

Yes, I check my bank statements but I got the impression in this case (maybe wrongly) that she and her husband had a joint credit card, off which a fixed amount was paid each month.

Not my way of operating, but it takes all sorts!

That's a lot of payments they didn't know about :-S

Yes, I check my statements, but if I'm honest, not always to exact amounts.
If the statement says I had spent £43.44 in Sainsbury's, I wouldn't know know if that is exactly right without further checking, so I usually do a 'glance check' first, then a more thorough check later.

I would always question an unknown or unexpected entry.
This can be if a store is operated under a franchise name for example, but I would check that.

Do you check yours.? Yet another person complaining to the press that they have been laying for a sub they didn’t know they had taken out 7 years ago.

Sorry, but that is your mistake - you should have checked yours statements a bit more regularly.

Fancy admitting your stupidity publicly.