Why you should watch your bank account every day

If you have a quick a look at the changes in banking in the last thirty years or so, they have gone from simple passbooks, cheque books, term deposits and home or personal loans to a vast array of products and services including internet only accounts and visa debit cards.

 

All of these new accounts and services are tailored to meet the different banking needs of today, and all come with their individual fees and charges.

 

Australian banks are required to collect tax from all accounts on behalf of the Australian Tax Office and these are automatically deducted from your account.

 

A greater majority of us are paid our wages directly into our bank accounts and internet banking has made direct funds transfer a preferred method of payment for many purchases.

 

Interest rates for both investments and loans vary every day and many of us have set up direct deposit payments from our bank account to make periodical payments for a wide range of products and services ranging from insurance to Christmas hampers.

 

All of these reasons and many more make it imperative for us to keep a close eye on the comings and goings of funds from our accounts.

 

If direct deposits or other scheduled payments are due to come out of your account and the funds are not available to cover them, your bank has two clear options.

 

The first is to simply reject the funds transfer due to insufficient funds and then charge you a fee for their trouble. The second is to cover the payment for you and charge you an overdrawing approval fee for the favour.

 

Both situations and their respective fees can be avoided if you ensure that the funds required for all scheduled automatic payments to come out of your account are made available and clear prior to the scheduled transfer.

 

Another really important thing to watch for in your transaction history is any transaction that doesn’t look familiar to you. Don’t be afraid to contact your bank and question anything that looks peculiar, because the sooner any instance of fraud is detected and reported, the better your chances of the culprit being traced and hopefully you reclaiming your funds.

 

It is far better to ask and risk a little embarrassment than to let something slide and perhaps escalate into something that could cost you a lot of money.

 

In some instances of fraud the perpetrators have made small withdrawals first as a test for the details they have for a bank account, then they have made larger withdrawals or funds transfers later.

 

The amount of ‘traffic’ in and out of your account that is not directly generated by you personally makes it imperative to keep track of your accounts every day and be sure you know exactly what is happening with them.