Don't Bounce That Check!
by Florence Young
You can buy groceries or pay your telephone bill or go out to dinner with the money you give the bank when you bounce a check. Why don't you stop throwing your money away?
Bounced check charges on your checking account aren't a necessary evil. They happen because you're either not paying attention or you're playing games with your money.
For instance, you intend to make a deposit soon, maybe day after tomorrow. Your bills are due today. You pay your bills, hoping your checks will float around somewhere until you put enough money in the bank to cover them. Bounced check reminders are on their way to your mailbox while you're on the way to the bank with your deposit. Increased use of electronic banking speeds the collection of money from your account and greatly decreases your odds of winning in this high-rish game of float.
But what if your deposit goes directly to the bank, with the same amount being credited to your account on the same day every week? The bank's computers don't know that. If money isn't there to cover your checks those computers will deplete your direct deposit, when it arrives, by the exact amount of bounced check charges. The people who were told your checks weren't good will take more money from you.
A bank account is not an inalienable right. It is a privilege. Take care of it. Read the information you are given when you open your account. Spare yourself the surprise of service charges, cost of your checks, "hold" time of some of your deposits and any fees you're expected to pay.
The money you put in the bank is your money. Keeping track of it is your job. No friendly voice will remind you to replenish your dwindling funds. Those days are gone forever, replaced by computers which, without a flicker of pity, will spit out notices of deficient dollars and the resulting charges. These same computers will also tally up the number of times you've bounced a check and deliver a series of reminders to mend your ways. Ignore their warnings and they will heartlessly close your account.
Your checkbook register is not scrap paper. Use it. Write down the amount of your deposits, every time, including direct deposits. Subtract the amount of every check you write, every time. The amount of money recorded in your check book register -- that last amount after you've done your adding and subtracting -- is all the money you can spend. When you write a check you've spent the amount of the check. You can't use it again to write another check while the first one is still floating around in the mail somewhere. And pay attention to all payments automatically debited from your account. Record the amount and subtract it from your balance, every time.
Record your Automated Teller Machine transactions and keep your receipts. And remember to use your checkbook balance as your guide to the amount of money available for your use. The ATM doesn't know how many checks you've written that have not yet cleared your account, so relying on the ATM receipt for an accurate balance can lead you straight into a series of bounced checks -- and the resulting charges.
The bank will help you take care of your money by sending you a record once a month. This record, or bank statement, isn't junk mail. It's a legal document. Look at it carefully. Did the bank charge your account for the exact amount of each check? Was every canceled check listed on your statement and was it listed only once? Are all of your deposits listed and are the amounts correct? Compare your ATM receipts with the ATM transactions listed on your statement. Subtract the amount of fees and service charges from the balance in your checkbook after you've verified their accuracy. Report any errors at once.
Follow the instructions on your statement's work sheet. The answer to all your arithmetic should be the same as the balance in your checkbook. Keep these statements for at least seven years. The vagaries of divorce settlements may require you to produce financial records on short notice. Ordering duplicates from the bank can be costly in time and money.
You're on your own now that you're single again. The checking account belongs to you. Shifting the blame for abuse of the account to someone else is no longer an option.
You do not need to throw away all those dollars for bounced check charges. You do not need to hand over money to a retail store for nothing but returned check charges. Careful record keeping takes time. It can add up to as much as 30 minutes a month. But the minutes you spend taking care of your checking account buys peace of mind. And it buys money, the money you'll keep in your account to use as you choose to use it.
copyright 2000 by Florence Young -- all rights reserved
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