Check Your Credit Card Accounts

One of the downside to having so many credit cards is that I open myself up to a ton of risk. Why you may ask?

In our community, people apply for a credit card, spend the minimum for the sign-up bonus, and then put the credit card away until the annual fee comes around. The problem with this strategy is one falls into "out of sight, out of mind syndrome." When one does not use a card, one tends to forget to check the activity on that card.

This is what happened to me. Last Spring, I applied for a credit card, made the $3,000 minimum spend and then locked it up. For some reason, I decided to check the online statement for this card and saw a $600 charge. I was shocked. I had not used this card in 5+ months. I quickly called the credit card company to dispute the charge and cancel my card. Luckily, the charge occurred only a few days early, so I was not liable.

Immediately, I put a monthly reminder on my calender to check all of my credit card online statements and I recommend you do it as well. I have talked about the danger of credit card debt, but another danger is ignorance. Not checking your credit card accounts can lead to unauthorized charges going unnoticed and possible late payments being reported to the credit bureaus.

Lesson Learn: check online statement frequently for all credit cards



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