Why Monitor Your Account?

In this day and age, with multiple accounts to monitor on a daily basis like Facebook, Twitter, your personal and work email, who has time to regularly check their online banking account? Well, it might surprise you to know that if there is one thing you should be monitoring, it’s your bank account.

By monitoring your bank account on a regular basis, not only can you catch evidence of fraud or stolen accounts, but you can stop it before it becomes a bigger problem. Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern MA, ME, RI, & VT (BBB) is here to fill you in on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ when it comes to monitoring your account.

Update virus protection and security software. Ensure that all anti-spyware, anti-malware, and security software and mechanisms are up-to-date on your computer or laptop. Install antivirus applications on your mobile device to protect yourself from viruses or malware that could arise from future downloads.

Don’t just look for big mistakes. Consumers that fail to monitor their accounts tend to rely on their bank to notify them of suspicious behavior such as out of state or larger-than-normal purchases. Unfortunately, that doesn’t catch every scammer. Scammers that are smart will start out with small withdrawals at general businesses that are popular for anyone to shop at, such as CVS or Amazon. Why? To see if you notice before making a large purchase. In order to stop a scammer in his or her tracks at the first sign of a compromised bank account, you need to keep track of your spending.

Keep all receipts. That’s right - every single one of them. Whenever you make a purchase on your debit or credit card, ask for a receipt and file it away. This way, if you see a transaction on your account that you are unsure of, you will be able to refer back to your own personal receipts.

A good way to organize your receipts is to separate them by month. For every year, label 12 different envelopes with the day of the month (i.e. May ‘17) a store your receipts accordingly. Have a big pile? Luckily, every receipt you get should have the date of transaction on it, so it will be easy to organize.

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