With the rapid increase of banking technology, many people find it unnecessary to keep track of their checking account the old fashioned way, with a ledger. Between free phone banking, online banking, twenty four hour customer service, and longer branch hours, people are starting to steer away from traditional banking practices.
This is fine for some people, if you are capable of keeping track of everything this way. For most people though, the old fashioned pen and a ledger should be the approach. Not all checks are cashed as soon as we think, people hold onto checks, checks can come back, online credits from new technology like pay-pal and online gambling come in at different times. Many people use automatic debit from their account to pay many of their bills.
Without taking the five minutes a day to note down every check you write, online purchase you make, checking deposit, or counter withdrawals into a ledger, it is extremely difficult to keep track of your spending, and this can lead to the very uncomfortable situation of getting an overdraft fee, or even worse, a bounced-check.
These fees are incredibly high for most banking institutions, and it seems that most people would want to keep track of their account as to avoid giving the bank your hard earned money for absolutely nothing. Between all the random fees banks are notorious for, it’s a wonder why people wouldn’t take the short amount of time to keep an up-to-the-minute balance of all their accounts, as to avoid this situation.
Take my advice, get an old fashioned ledger (your bank branch will still provide them), and update your account. And instead of letting it back up, just jot it down in the ledger every time you have activity in your account. It will become second nature to you, and you will have a great peace of mind knowing that you have total control over your banking and personal finance situation.