Credit Card Statements

How many of you receive your credit card statements either by postal mail or email/online and just automatically make a payment without looking at or just barely glancing at your statement? STOP!! Mistakes are made everyday and lets face it those credit card companies want to get every dime out of you that they can.

From first hand experience - Most of my credit card statements come via email/online and normally I pay them myself but on this one occasion my husband decided he wanted to sit with me. (I think he wanted to see if I had spent anything without telling him) As I was paying one of our credit cards online the current statement came up on the computer screen and my husband noticed a charge for $14.99 for a credit report company. We both looked at each other and asked "what did you buy?" Neither of us could recall having done this, so we called our credit card company immediately and explained the situation. Come to find out this was the second month we had been charged this amount and I never bothered to look at my statement carefully the previous month or I would have caught it then. The customer service rep was a great help, she not only credited us back the month that we caught but she credited us back the previous month I missed and the finance charge for both months. We had to answer a few questions so that the credit card company could investigate but it was worth it.

Always take the time to thoroughly review your credit card statements every month. It wouldn't hurt to check your monthly utility statements as well. Doing this will not only SAVE you money but SAVE you the time it takes to call and straighten it all out. Some companies may not be as nice as our credit card company.