Showerthought: my coworker's credit card story made me check my own statements

I was grabbing coffee yesterday and overheard my coworker, Jake, telling someone he found a $12.99 monthly charge on his card for a streaming service he canceled like 8 months ago. He said he never would have noticed if he wasn't looking for something else. It got me thinking, so I pulled up my own online banking and went through the last three months of charges line by line. I actually found a $9.99 gym app subscription I forgot I had signed up for during a free trial last winter. It's not a ton of money, but it adds up, and it's sneaky. I feel like I should be better about this, but just looking at the total balance doesn't cut it. How often do you guys actually sit down and audit every single charge on your statements?

5 comments

5 Comments

charles_mitchell3mo ago

Oh man, I was totally the same way. I used to just glance at the total and figure if it looked close, I was fine. Then I found a random $14.99 "service fee" from some website I'd bought a single thing from a year prior, and it was set to renew. That was a real wake-up call. Now I try to do a quick scan of every line at least once a month, which sounds like a pain but only takes a few minutes.

gibson.avery3mo ago

Spot that kind of thing everywhere now. Companies bank on us being too busy or lazy to check the small print. It's not just bank fees, it's the tiny auto-renewals on apps, the creeping price hikes on subscriptions. They make their money on inattention. Your monthly scan is the only real defense.

violar351mo agoProlific Poster

Ugh, I kinda disagree actually. I mean yeah, some companies definitely try to sneak things in, but I feel like a lot of this is on us for not paying attention in the first place. Most of those auto-renewals have big warnings when you sign up, and the small print isn't that small if you actually look at it. I get that life gets busy, but blaming them for our own laziness feels like a cop out. Plus, once you know the trick, it's pretty easy to just set a reminder to check everything once a month and move on.

miles_burns3mo ago

My friend got hit just like @charles_mitchell, a hidden gym fee.

blair_taylor321mo ago

Hidden gym fee" lol sneaky bastards.