Online Banking and Personal Register

[mac-er]

With the prevalence of online banking, do you find it necessary to keep your own personal register of transactions (either online or paper) to reconcile with your statement anymore?

In the old "days", you virtually had to do so because you didn't really have an idea of the transactions that had cleared the bank until you got your statement each month.

I was thinking the other day why I spend so much time keeping up with transactions in Quicken if I can go online and view balances and transactions anytime I want.

 

[iGary]

With the prevalence of online banking, do you find it necessary to keep your own personal register of transactions (either online or paper) to reconcile with your statement anymore?

In the old "days", you virtually had to do so because you didn't really have an idea of the transactions that had cleared the bank until you got your statement each month.

I was thinking the other day why I spend so much time keeping up with transactions in Quicken if I can go online and view balances and transactions anytime I want.

I still have them send me paper, but no I do not "balance" my check regieter. I view it every few days and maybe print out a PDF to make sure nothing is whacky...that's about it.

 

[GoCubsGo]

I get a paper statement as well each month, but I also save the files to my computer that I download (pdf). I double check each one. Since I hardly write checks I just make sure everything is good to go.
My balance is semi real time. It shows pending transactions. Since I technically bank at a smaller bank compared to Citi or BofA they only show balance and then available balance + pending transacitons. CitiBank is great because it's real time pretty much and they tell you WHERE the pending debit is coming from.

Keeping a paper register is only good if you write a ton of checks I think. You want to make sure you don't spend the cash when there are outstanding checks.

 

[Zman5225]

I havent kept a paper register for over 8 years now. Nowadays I just check almost daily online though to check my transactions to make sure they are right, but in all the days ive been online banking, ive only found 1 error, in my favor, that we corrected with a phone call.

Z

 

[mcarnes]

I just keep a high balance and don't worry about it. When I get my paper statement each month, I look at any charge over $100 and make sure I remember that transaction (usually I do). I do that with credit cards too.

I used to track every transaction in Quicken, and what a waste of time that was. 5 years of doing that and I never found a charge that was off, so I didn't see the point in the extra work.

 

[Kwyjibo]

I do not balance my checking book, but at the same time, I put most things on my credit card and pay it off every month.

I keep the checking account very simple, it only has three credits ( Amex bill, Rent Check, and Power Bill) and one debit (paychecks). So I keep everything with the bank clear so errors stick out like a sore thumb.

I recently had Chase give me an extra $100 because the dude who deposited wrote his number unclearly. I called them up, mostly because I felt bad for the dude who didn't have his $100 and probably needed it ... It still took them a week to transfer it out.


I also use the online statements quite a bit.