Bank statement does not jive with checkbook

[PaulaO]

All my checks and debit card transactions have cleared. All my deposits have cleared. But the bank says I have $362 MORE than my checkbook says. I've never been meticulous about my checking account--the bank always says I have more. But $362??? I shouldn't complain; it could be the other way. I simply do not have the patience do go through a year's transactions and statements. Should I worry??????

[orono]

How do you know that you have $362 more if you aren't meticulous about records? When was the last time you reconciled your account? If it was within the last month or 2 I'd go line by line to find the discrepancy. Since it's early in the year is it possible that it's tied to a paycheque deposit amount?

[LeoApp]

Years of transactions? Don't you balance every month against your statement? You shouldn't just trust that the bank is going to be right. I always balance every month and then write a little OK next to where I left off. That is how I know where to start from the next month.

[PaulaO]

No, I don't balance it every month. Every week I look at my account online and tick off what has cleared. Today everything has cleared, and the balance differs. And yes, I trust that the bank is going to be right.

[gee]

In this day and age where identity theft is an issue, I keep track of my accounts. They always say people who hack accounts start off with tiny transactions just to see if anyone notices. I would at least check once a month. Trust banks - I would rethink that.

[Canyon]

Two possibilities come to mind.

1) My bank has credited someone else’s deposit to my account by mistake before. When they figure it out, the “fun” money disappears, though!

2) Are you sure your tax refund hasn’t shown up by direct deposit?

[Mareless]

Is your checking account interest bearing? If so, could that be the amount of interest you've accumulated in the past year? (And as a person formerly in banking, my bank is the last place I trust, lol. I've seen too many 'mechanical' glitches as technology got more and more involved. I don't even use automatic withdrawals for my monthly bills, I do them all manually myself each month )

[Kyra's Mom]

Don't know.

I can't function like that. I balance my checkbook at least once a week...sometimes more if I'm checking for something to clear or need the image of the transaction. It has to match...down to the penny. Just my hang up but it works. Much easier to find $1 or 2 here or there weekly than try to find $$$$ when you have no basis as to when the difference (error?) may have occurred. Also, I still occasionally write checks and those do not clear instantly like CC or DC transactions so I do the math...frequently.
With identity theft rampant, I don't think you can be too careful. I'm kind of obsessive compulsive when it comes to my money .

Susan

[AirsAboveNC]

I don't keep a checkbook but I look over my statements online weekly. I go so few places that it is easy to see whether or not the online statement is consistent with my spending. I did have my debit card number stolen once and discovered it within 12 hours of it being used.

[PaulaO]

I'm like you Airs, I look at my online statements weekly. I'm not going to worry about this. Truthfully, this might be the holdover from the seekret $500 I had in my account but never put in my register.

[Tarlo Farm]

I not only round my checks in my recorder for my check book, but I'm happy if I'm within a couple bucks when I balance. A few times something like this has happened, but if it's to my favor, I let it ride another month. But I balance my check book every month. "Balance" being a relative term.

[orono]

No, I don't balance it every month. Every week I look at my account online and tick off what has cleared. Today everything has cleared, and the balance differs. And yes, I trust that the bank is going to be right.

Does this mean that a week ago there was no discrepancy?

[PaulaO]

Nope, last week there was a discrepancy. There's been one for months.

[orono]

Oh ok. it can only be one of 3 things- 1) a payment that hasn't cleared 2) a deposit that was higher than expected 3) a bank error. I would look through your #2s, and see if you can find anything.

[NancyP]

Ummmm.... being 'meticulous' means that you check your account at least once a week. And balance it. And if it is 'out' then you find the error. And fix it.
If 'the bank always says I have more" you need to find out why.... and don't wait for several weeks or months.

How much was it out last week?

[Hayburner]

I just had a strange thing happen with my security company. I had not received a bill in Feb, or March. I called and they said my account was current. I said , No Way, I know I didn't pay it . The girl checks my account again and asked if I knew a Mary Suchandsuch, No, I don't know her. As this lady was paying on my account.

She looked up her account and low and behold she was in the past due status. When Mary Suchandsuch set up auto payments from her bank account, she put in one wrong number and it was my account number. So, her auto withdraws were crediting my account.

Possibly something like this happened and you got someone else's paycheck or whatever. I would not spend it yet

[pawsplus]

I'm amazed to see that so many people still keep a checkbook for not only checks, but also debit card transactions and auto withdrawals! I do, too, but I'm constsntly mocked for it. Most people seem to just look at the account online regularly to make sure there is nothing they don't recognize. But how can you know how much money you really have that way? I have many payments coming out automatically via bank draft every month--mortgage, IRA contribution, donations, etc. In addition, I set up payments whose amounts vary month to month at the beginning, and write those down, with the date on which they will come out noted. So at the beginning of the month, I note all the auto payments, and then deduct those from the total, so that I know not how much money is actually in the account, but how much I can really spend. Unless you are so wealthy as to have a huge pad in the account, I don't see how people function without doing that. I'd get into huge trouble!

I check the account online daily, highlight all charges as they clear, and balance the check register against the account monthly. Sometimes there are minor differences, which I put down to math errors or reading my own writing errors, but I adjust things so the account balances and start each month out in balance.

I also have a "hold" system. "Extra" money (from my trimming biz) is put on hold by my writing HOLD in the check register, deducting the amount I am holding, and highlighting the hold in a special color. My mind forgets it's there. If something comes up unexpectedly (vet bill, etc), I take it off hold and use it. If not, it comes off hold at the end of the month and goes into savings.

[AirsAboveNC]

I feel like my finances are probably a lot simpler than many other adults. I have no bills outside of rent, utilities (electric, internet, cell phone), and car insurance. No credit card. No debt.

I'm not sure I could take a quick glance at my online statement if my finances were more complicated than they are now, and I admire those of you who can carefully track a long list of payments and the like. I worry that I would not be good at doing so.

[clanter]

the easiest way for my wife and I to save money was to almost keep a leger of the expenses

[Minz]

I had a mysterious debit on my summer house phone bill once. The phone company then used the money to activate the phone without my permission. It took 30 minutes on the phone to get the activation and charges reversed. Then when I told them that I hadn't made the payment, I was told that all I could do was wait until the other person found the discrepancy on their bill and complained. It was an entry error, and there was no way to know who the intended account belonged to. It is possible you are the beneficiary of a mis-entered deposit. I would go back through online statements looking only for deposits. That is easier than reconciling every month individually. You should be able to identify fairly quickly if there is a deposit that doesn't belong. However, if the bank doesn't take it back, it is yours to keep so maybe it isn't even worth the effort to do that much.
Maybe you need to make a splurge purchase to celebrate your windfall.

[boots-aregard]

I'd put the money into a savings account, and forget about it until the Bank got back with me about their error.

In all likelihood, the error was yours, not the bank's (because if they credited you someone else's money, someone ELSE would be shouting at them.) If they don't say anything about it in a year, well use it for Christmas money or give it to a charity.

[MaryC]

(((((((LA LA LA LA I can't hear you with my fingers in my ears!)))))))

I've worked in banking, managing the departments that do the account corrections, and a lot of time was spent with people that never balanced their checkbooks or rounded off transactions or had that mystery amount that they forgot about, when they finally decided there must be something wrong but didn't know where to start. $hit happens, even in this electronic age. Things hiccup, mispost, go poof and get identity-thieved. I can appreciate that some people are a bit casual with their money, but I wouldn't sleep at night not having an exact idea of what's in my accounts or on my credit cards!

[PaulaO]

My statement just came. I printed it out, went through my register, and it still doesn't jive. I'm just going to work off what MY register says, not what the bank says. That way I won't be caught short.

Thread over.

[Tabby]

If it's been going on for months, then the transaction occurred sometime in the past. Do you still have your old statements? If not you should be able to check online. If your income and spending habits are quasi-regular, you should be able to scan through and find it without too much trouble.

[KathyK]

Forgive me, but the word you want is jibe, not jive.

[PaulaO]

KathyK, you are correct. Unless I am doing the hand jive with my checkbook......

[orono]

Yes, if you have past records you need to go back to when they did balance, and work forward to find the error.

[angela9823]

I haven't balanced my checkbook in years. However, there are only three things that come out of my account on a regular basis - car payments and pay the credit card off every time I get paid. That is it. I use my credit card for everything and never use the debit card or checks. I don't want anyone having access to my checking account and the card associations' rules favor the consumer much more than the checking account world does. And I'm a banker. I WISH more of my customers would operate that way. I look daily at my credit card account which happens to be tied to my online access for my checking account so I'm looking at it as well. As a banker, I actually saw more issues with people that were balancing to the penny. They would accidentally forget a check they wrote and then be in overdraft and bring their check register to show they balanced. Ummm...nooo...where is check #?? You didn't write it down.

[Chisamba]

This thread is interesting. I never knew people were so obsessed with their pennies.

[KathyK]

This thread is interesting. I never knew people were so obsessed with their pennies.

It's not really that petty. As MaryC wrote:

I've worked in banking, managing the departments that do the account corrections, and a lot of time was spent with people that never balanced their checkbooks or rounded off transactions or had that mystery amount that they forgot about, when they finally decided there must be something wrong but didn't know where to start. $hit happens, even in this electronic age. Things hiccup, mispost, go poof and get identity-thieved.

[exploding pony]

I never balance my account. I just make sure the incoming and outgoing amounts match.

Can't imagine checking my account balance daily! Who has time for that?

[Racetrackreject]

I never balance my account. I just make sure the incoming and outgoing amounts match.

^^ This is me as well.

[Kyra's Mom]

This thread is interesting. I never knew people were so obsessed with their pennies.

Yep...that is me. The only thing I am OCD about. Could be worse .

Susan

[Chisamba]

lol, i think i would drive myself crazy if it bothered me, i have no talent in that area

[silk]

NZ was the trial country for eftpos and we have embraced it to the point many people don't ever have cash on them. I know my trimming clients make special trips into town for an ATM or branch as they think I want to be paid cash (I usually tell them to stop that fairly quickly, and get them to pay me online). So most of this thread is completely foreign to me... I never balance my account. EVER.

I've never experienced an error of the mysterious kind. One time an AU$ cheque was deposited in NZ$ (eg, right number, wrong currency), but that was a keying error not a random bank error that made money vanish from my account. I do glance at transactions when I log onto my account (online access) but that's more to see how much money is on my card, not to balance transactions.

I use my eftpos (debit) card daily, sometimes multiple times each day. I use online banking almost daily. I have an app on my mobile (smartphone) that allows me to access to all of my bank accounts... I can transfer money from my savings account to my debit account while standing in line at a store.

[silk]

Oh and here, if money goes into the wrong account (eg you make an error when doing an online transaction), there's no guarantee it can 1) be traced and 2) be returned. If the bank tracks it down, they still need the recipient's permission to remove the money from their account again. Obviously morally one shouldn't say no, but there's nothing making them agree. And due to our privacy laws, the bank cannot tell the person who sent the money, who the recipient was.

[Tabby]

Canada must be very similar to NZ as we hardly use cash or checks any more as well. The only thing I write checks for is my horse board and the only thing I use cash for is to chip in for a gift at work when someone retires or has a death in the family. DH uses a bit more cash than me and occasionally leaves some change in his pockets which I keep when I do the laundry. It's always more than enough for me - I don't think I've withdrawn cash in a few years. That being said, it's still important for me to check my accounts weekly since there are a lot of transactions. The good thing about it is I know exactly where I spent the money.

[silk]

I'm 29 and I've never had my own cheque book.

The most frustrating thing about cash is we sell our free range chicken eggs and get paid in coins. I never have the right change to break notes for the buyers.