How often do you balance your checkbook?

[kathie859]

I've opted to go completely online (no paper statements) and I love it! Have pretty much given up writing paper checks, too. Much easier to keep track of your money and expenses this way.

We have two bank accounts (not that we actually have any money) and both are managed online.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Does anyone else use Quicken? It's awesome!!! We have used it since 1998 or '99.

I get updates and balance it a few times a week.

I've used both Quicken and Money. I prefer Quicken. I use it to track all of my accounts. I think I have close to 20 set up. I just wish they would include HSAs as an account type.

I rarely write a check--all bills are auto pay and I pay the 3 credit cards I use online as well. I put all expenses on my RCCL credit card to earn points for cruising. I check online once a week to check what has been posted.

I used to balance every month until I started online.

We no longer pay any bills at all by check or even by writing online checks. Every bill autopays, including the credit cards. I refer to it as the food bowl method of finances. My employer puts money in the bowl and everyone else feeds off of the bowl. I just watch it to make sure that everyone is doing what they are supposed to.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

I review/balance my checkbook everyday. It's in an Excel spreadsheet.

 

[antmaril]

Never. I've had this account for 35 years.

 

[DisneyBlonde]

Sort of never and sort of every day.

I don't use the checkbook register, and I never formally balance the account.

I write the check # and amount in a notebook and I check my account online every day or every 2 days. I mark it when the check clears, and just quickly eyeball that there is more in the account than the total of the remaining checks.

 

[Judy from Boise]

Never, but I manage my online banking twice a day!

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Hmm, I guess continously?

I write electronic checks through credit union, and they have downloads to input into quicken, I can "balance" every day if necessary.

and a lot of e-checks are already in my "pending" que. (i can write a check for a bill as many months in advance that I want.) phones/newspaper/etc.

 

[alexandria674]

Every week, I get nervous if I don't.

 

[disney1990]

I check our checking account and balance it daily. I also check my credit card account on a daily basis.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

One thing that I really love is having our bank send an e-mail with our account balance, total withdrawals, and total deposits every morning. It's a good sanity check each morning.

 

[suejai]

I do everything online, I don't even have cheques anymore. But I always know what is going in and out of my account. I look at least every other day, and review my budget frequently.

 

[Plantlady]

I said once a month, but I probably should of said never.

DH and I get paid once a month. At that point, I pay our bills, based on that INCOMING income, not based on what is still in the bank.

So, I don't go over what we have that month coming in. Existing Balances are just left in there for emergency.

 

[Charade]

I haven't in the years since I went to electronic bill pay. I rarely write checks any more. I always know there's enough to cover pretty much anything that pops up between paydays.

 

[LindaG4458]

At least three times per week, sometimes daily. I'm an accountant and compulsive.

 

[Charade]

At least three times per week, sometimes daily. I'm an accountant and compulsive.

I can see checking your account activity frequently (or use alerts from your financial institution) for fraud but balancing in 3 times a week (or daily) for accuracy is a bit compulsive IMHO.

 

[nikkistevej]

I work at the bank- and I make sure everything balances every day. I do it online- takes about 2 minutes- maybe 5 minutes after the weekend. I am obsessed. LOL

 

[stacy347]

I check it every day and it has paid off being so obsessive, LOL.
There have been a couple of errors on the bank's part that would have been quite difficult to fix had I not seen them right away.
Also one morning recently I woke up to my account being $1400 overdrawn and almost had my heart stop ~ somehow my debit card was hacked and in one day, they racked up almost $2000 in purchases at gas stations out of state. Luckily, I do check every day and they were able to put a stop to it immediately.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Never. I check my balance online every 2-3 days and go by that...period. Stops me from bouncing checks and overdrawing our account. I NEVER use the ATM as I'm a server and most of our debit/credit card transactions show immediately. Exceptions: Gas station doesn't show til about 2 days later, and GEICO doesn't show til 2-3 days later. Everything else will post and pend for a couple of days and then drops down once it goes through. However, once it's pending our balance drops and I like seeing that. I DO write down all checks I've written in my ledger so I can keep up with what's out there as I don't do duplicates anymore. Once a check goes through, I check it off.

 

[Muffin]

And now the banker is me is gonna come out... LOL. If you don't ever balance your checkbook, how would you know if there was a mistake??

I check my balance and recent transactions on line every day and only write checks when they won't accept another form of payment. I'll find any mistakes long before I would if I waited to get a paper statement in the mail and then balanced it.

 

[DVC-Don]

Monthly, but I have three accounts to balance every month.