How Often Should You Monitor Your Checking Account

by Paul Browne
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How often should you monitor your checking account?

How often should you monitor your checking account? It's an important question to ask, and answering it comes down to understanding the logic behind doing so. To help us do this, we turned to Deanne Shaw, VP of Retail Operations at PrimeWay. There are two significant areas to pay attention to off the bat. If you regularly use your PrimeWay debit card and pay loans through your account, you should be monitoring it every day.

But, of course, there are many factors beyond that to explore. Is your account funded well enough to have a financial hiccup should one occur? Do you use your debit card anywhere known for instances of fraud, like gas stations? What you'll find once you explore these possibilities is that everyone exists on a sliding scale. By the end of this article, you'll have enough information to know where you are on that scale.

Monitoring your checking account to avoid hidden fees.

In the era of online subscriptions and free trials, hidden fees and new charges can sneak up on us. So, it's always good to do a more thorough check at least every week to see if you missed something. PrimeWay Member, Jakiya Ross, talks about when she noticed her daughter was being charged a monthly fee from Audible. Her daughter signed up to listen to audiobooks and inadvertently became a regular subscriber.

It's often a great idea to reach out to the merchant to resolve the matter directly in these circumstances.

Tips for monitoring your checking account.

"If you regularly use your debit card and have a limited discretionary budget, check at least every morning," says Deanne. She goes on to say that this frequency does not have to be difficult either. She mentions PrimeWay has a quick-look feature that allows you to see your last several transactions when you log in.

But, the bottom line is finding a rhythm that's comfortable for you. PrimeWay Chief Marketing Officer, Michelle Oshinski, finds that monitoring about once a week is best for her. But, this is because of the automated alert system provided by PrimeWay. More on that later.

It's here where we should establish a baseline. So far, the trend you've seen between Michelle and Deanne is the process of checking at least once per week. So, no matter what, the experts agree monitoring at least once a week is a must.

Avoid fraud by monitoring your checking account.

You also want to be proactive about fraudulent activity. The first thing to address is whether you use your card at locations with a high possibility of fraudulent activity.

Like what, you might ask. Gas stations, gas stations, gas stations. At the top of your list should be checking your account after swiping at the gas pump. Why? The reason is card skimming devices, which rob your card info by sitting on top of the actual swiping terminal.

However, today's most significant area of fraud is called card-not-present fraud (CNP fraud). This situation occurs during online transactions where you do not present a card to a merchant. You enter your card information. In these instances, your card info could become compromised by entering it into a malicious website. You could also fall victim to this in an email phishing scam asking for card info or user access credentials. Finally, hackers are always trying to access your financial information by other means.

Because nobody knows more about your transactions than you, a simple check could help you here. You could uncover fraud early on or find other unusual activity as it's starting to preempt the worst effects. PrimeWay provides text and phone call notifications to help you have a second set of eyes.

Tools to help you monitor your checking account.

To stay ahead of the curve in today's fast-moving consumer environment, look no further than the PrimeWay mobile app. It is among the best mobile banking tools on the market. Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars in Google Play and 4.8 stars on the Apple App Store, it's a must-see.

Michelle quickly addresses the automated alert system available on the PrimeWay mobile app. "Low-balance alerts and alerts for bill payments over a certain amount are guardrails to keep you on track," says Michelle. And that's not even all of the alerts you have at your disposal. There is a lot of room to automate a great deal of your mobile banking with PrimeWay.

It's at this point that Jakiya hits us with a game-changer. As it turns out, it's not just Jakiya who banks with PrimeWay. Her daughter does too! "I can see her account and mine through one login and can transfer between her account and mine," says Jakiya. She further comments that the same ability applies to adding a business account and much more than that. Jakiya says she has as many as four accounts she can skip back and forth from her login. So, even monitoring multiple accounts is easy and fast with the PrimeWay app!

The PrimeWay checking experience rapid-fire.

Before we let Jakiya go, we decided to play a fun word-association game. We wanted to get to the true essence of the online and mobile checking experience at PrimeWay. We asked her some rapid-fire questions, and we saved the best one for you!

"If PrimeWay checking was a day of the week, what day would it be?"

Jakiya: "I would say Sunday. Sunday is like an easy, get yourself together kind of day. There's not a lot of pressure, and you feel like you've accomplished something."
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How Often Should You Monitor Your Checking Account

How often should you monitor your checking account? It's an important question to ask, and answering it comes down to who you are and how you spend.

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Author Bio

Paul Browne

Paul is about everything digital marketing when he isn't galavanting as a pirate at the Texas Renaissance Festival, going to rattlesnake roundups or accidentally saying yes to Ironman triathlons.

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