Financial Tips | Money and Kids

Cashspeak! Credit Card Safety: How to Check your Statements - CASHSPEAK
Header Ads

11/7/07

Credit Card Safety: How to Check your Statements

Checking your credit card statement is an important practice to establish. Many times, people just look at the minimum amount due or the balance and pay that amount. The problem with this is that they may be paying for a charge that they did not make or that was incorrectly calculated.

I have a story for example purposes: many quick cafés and small coffee shops have a small device that they use to swipe your credit or debit card to pay for your purchase. You may have noticed that some of these machines require that the employee type in the amount to be charged. The coffee shop I was at had one of these machines. My total was $6.07, however, the coffee shop employee accidentally added a zero to the end of my total. Therefore my $6.07 charge became $60.70. Luckily, I caught this error when I went to sign the receipt. The problem was immediately handled, however, had I got my credit card statement and just decided to pay the balance without looking at the charges, I would have paid about $54 more than I should have.

The point is, mistakes happen. Therefore, you should always check your credit card statement to make sure that all of the charges that appear on your statement are legitimate.

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

No comments: