trouble balancing my checkbook

 I have a checking account in which I keep a reasonable amount of money.
I am very good at entering checks written, money deposited, bills paid,
etc. However, I am unable to keep balancing my checkbook against the
bank statement which I get over the net and in the mail.

The account is so fluid in that bills are automatically paid throughout
the month, my pension and social security are also automatically
deposited at the beginning of the month. The balance figure that I show
in my checkbook and the bank's balance are widely different. And it has
been so for the last couple of years. It never matches. I am not talking
pennies either, more like several hundred. I am not too worried as so
far it is all in my favor. I have gone over my checkbook with a fine
toothcomb but I have found nothing.

If push comes to shove, who would be believed, me or the bank? Would it
be considered my mistake or their mistake? Do I take it up with the
bank? I don't think so, as they have a big turnover and no one seems to
know that much. Help, please!

 
You'll have to go back to the point at which you last had an accurate
reconciliation of your checkbook and your bank statement, then start
checking again. Looking for why it's off now won't do much good.

Are you using any financial software to track your checking account?
That could make it easier to reconcile, but entering all the
transactions will be a lot of work.


The bank would be believed. They can document everything, and it's up
to you to prove otherwise.


Gary

--
Gary Heston  gheston@hiwaay.net   http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

"Behind every successful woman there is an astonished man"
    General of the Army (four stars) Ann Dunwoody

 On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 21:44:53 -0500, gheston@hiwaay.net (Gary Heston)
wrote:


Might be able to download it all and import it into Quicken or Money.
Depends on the bank.  Mine has it back to 2003.  
Once some time goes by, it can be a real PITA balancing something out
of balance.  If you're lucky it's one transaction, which can be easy
to find if the dollar/cents is unique.
Sound like it could be a timing issue, writing checkbook entries
before the bank posts the transaction.
Force it to balance on a statement, then see what happens the next
statement to pin down the problem.
Quicken or Money eliminates this nonsense once they're set up
correctly.

--Vic
 

 

Why bother balancing your checkbook? My parents do that and I never saw
the point to it. I got my first checking account when I was a teenager
in college 20 years ago. I still have that same checking account. My
checks come in two parts. The first part is the actual check and then
each check has a carbon copy.

I have been using the same system to manage my checking account for many
years. It works great and it takes only a few minutes per month. First
off, most of my bills are now paid electronically out of that same
checking account, so that makes managing it even easier and it cuts down
on postage.

What I do with my paper checks is once or twice a month, I log onto my
bank's web site then I compare the checks that were processed with each
copy of my checks. Each check that's cashed goes into an envelope
labeled "verified check receipts" if the amount debited from my account
matches the amount on the check. In all the years I have been doing
this, I have only found one discrepancy, which was corrected.

When I prepare my taxes every February, my "verified check receipts"
envelop gets put away in my files with my tax records. I then start a
new check receipts envelope.

Each time I write out a check or issue an electronic payment, I log onto
my bank's web site, look at my checking account balance and my pending
payments. If I have enough money to pay another bill in the account, I
make the payment. If not, which is rare, I make the payment out of a
second checking account that I don't use much. I fund both checking
accounts automatically via direct deposit of my monthly salary.

 

Balancing a checkbook isn't difficult, but it does take attention to detail.
The detail is that you record **every** transaction, automatic or manual,
electronic or paper.  If that's too much trouble for you, you could adopt
the system my mother-in-law used for years - she had two checking accounts
at two different banks.  She'd use one checking account one month, the other
account the next month.  During the second month, the transactions on the
first account had time to clear, so when the third month rolled around, her
checkbook balance and the bank statement would agree, and she'd use the
first account for the third month, and so on.

You can review the terms of your checking account with the bank.  Generally,
you have a period (30 days, 60 days, 90 days??) to spot an error, bring it
to the bank's attention (generally in writing) and they'll fix it.  After
that period, whatever the bank posted to your account is what you have,
right or wrong.

Mistakes on the part of the bank are few and far between, in my experience,
but paper checks require a human to read them and key in the amount, and no
one is error free all the time.  Electronic transactions (direct deposit,
automatic bill pay) may be even less likely to be in error, but in my
working life I've known two people who's direct deposit was not deposited
when it should have been, and one who's account was mysteriously erroneously
debited all the way down to zero.  The automatic payments were charged to
the account, they were overdrawn, and charged for overdrafts.  The error was
eventually straightened out, but in each case it took several months.