I am resisting the trend to doing everything online. I still want my monthly credit card and bank statements. It triggers me to reconcile the accounts and make sure there are no bogus charges on the statements. I reconcile my statements every month, but I know lots of people never look at those statements. I'm sure the credit card company would rather their customers never look at the monthly statements and maybe uncover some bogus charges that the credit card would have to eat.
Speaking of credit card statements, earlier this week I was reconciling my Harbor Freight credit card statement and noticed that one transaction was off by $0.05. How does that happen? I still had the original receipt, so I took it out and verified the amount in my accounting software was entered correctly. So, I got online with chat and talked to a rep. He verified that I had been charged incorrectly and that they would issue a credit to the account.
Makes me wonder how many people are making purchases for one price and maybe the companies are adding a few cents here and there hoping that nobody notices. Those nickels and dimes of overcharge could add up to lots of money with millions of credit card customers and purchases. Unfortunately, I have come to trust no one when it comes to money. I verify all my transactions and accounts.
I agree that the paper statement is super helpful in that regard. Not to mention the security concern if someone else manage to get into your email. I use a PO Box, pretty much anything that comes to our house is junk mail unless it’s a package. I’ve noticed that I get far more junk at home than in my box. I use the box as mailing for the bank, dr bills, etc. and have packages sent to the house.You would think that could be an effective selling point for some company. Lots of people would choose the "greener" ink product if it was good and at a good price. Safer paper products for composting and use in food gardens later.
Also, my email inbox gets full of junk mail and phishing attempts. So much unwanted emails that I tell people to call me or send me an invoice if it's important. I just don't trust my email account anymore for really important things. Last thing I want is credit cards and bank statements in the email.
I just explained to the chat rep that my software flagged that transaction in the reconciliation process and would not balance. I did not understand how the amount could change from the computer at the checkout and the printed receipt, to the amount I was charged on the credit card statement. Without explanation, he just gave me credit for a nickel. Kind of misses the whole point of my concern. How does a computer ring up a sale for one price and then charge you something else on the statement?
Worse yet, I know lots of people who never look at their statements and just assume that the credit card company, or bank, is doing everything honestly and never make a mistake. That is just not true.
My parents had a Wells Fargo checking account and somehow, they were getting charged for insurance they never signed up for. My dad did not notice until he started getting overdraft notices and he did not understand why. I was able to get all those charges refund to my parents. Later that year, there was a class action lawsuit against Wells Fargo for that practice of employees signing up customers for services that they never agreed to purchase. The employees were getting some kind of kick back for the practice - until they got caught.
YES!!!
Very nice. Have you ever tried to make shopping bags out of chicken feed bags? I know that is a thing for some people.
Copilot is not infallible. It's only as good as the underlying data that trains the algorithm. I'd use your common sense, like anything else coming from the internet.
