How do you keep track of all of this?

[toothgrind3r]

Okay, so, up until about now....and I say about now because I'm not fully transitioned over...I have been a strictly debit card user.  I got into credit card trouble early on, so began the train of thought "Use your debit card, that way you can't spend more then you can afford".

But now I am much more responsible, and have a couple of credit cards, and working on getting a good rewards card, I want to go all in with all spending on credit cards.  But it's still a new world for me that I need to get used to.

So I guess, hmmm, what's my question?  I guess I have a few questions.

- How do you keep an eye on it?  Especially for fraudulent charges?  When I was in my debit card world, all I would have to do is log into my bank accounts site or mobile app once a day to make sure everything was a-okay.  But now with multiple cards from multiple banks, that could get a little....annoying maybe?  Dangerous?

- Does anyone use any of those financial aggragator sites/apps?  Mint?  LevelMoney?  Personal Capital?  Check.me?  Do you like any of them?

- Also, and slightly off topic, slightly on topic...when do you pay?  Before the new statement so as to avoid a large balance reporting?  Or just before the due date?  Or maybe once a week?  IS IT okay to pay once a week as a precaution?

[myjourney]

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@toothgrind3r wrote:

Okay, so, up until about now....and I say about now because I'm not fully transitioned over...I have been a strictly debit card user.  I got into credit card trouble early on, so began the train of thought "Use your debit card, that way you can't spend more then you can afford".

But now I am much more responsible, and have a couple of credit cards, and working on getting a good rewards card, I want to go all in with all spending on credit cards.  But it's still a new world for me that I need to get used to.

So I guess, hmmm, what's my question?  I guess I have a few questions.

- How do you keep an eye on it?  Especially for fraudulent charges?  When I was in my debit card world, all I would have to do is log into my bank accounts site or mobile app once a day to make sure everything was a-okay.  But now with multiple cards from multiple banks, that could get a little....annoying maybe?  Dangerous?

- Does anyone use any of those financial aggragator sites/apps?  Mint?  LevelMoney?  Personal Capital?  Check.me?  Do you like any of them?

- Also, and slightly off topic, slightly on topic...when do you pay?  Before the new statement so as to avoid a large balance reporting?  Or just before the due date?  Or maybe once a week?  IS IT okay to pay once a week as a precaution?

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Most CCC have alerts for this that can be sent to mobile phone or email

Examples

I have any charge alerts sent to phone

Any purchases w/o card present

Any outside the USA charges 

I aslo use the free sites for HP's CK, CS

[Chris679]

Reviewing the charges on your statement is always a good idea. 

I have heard good things about Mint but have yet to try it.  You can do everything on your phone now and that makes it a lot easier. 

I pay whenever I feel like it, sometime that's once a week other times its after the statement.  Citi limits me to 4 online payments per statement but from a lender perspective the more often you are paying, the less risk there is for them.  Mainly it depends on how much I spend on the card.  I find it can get temping if you start letting the balance get too high during the month.  Before you know it the statement comes and you can't pay the full amount.

Also, one of the smartest things I did was open a 2nd checking account to pay all bills out off.  Direct deposit comes in one account and the only things that go out are cash and transfers to the other account.  The second account always has the money for the bills and you never have to worry about accidentally withdrawing money that you needed for a bill that hasn't cleared yet.  All my spending is done with credit cards so I find it is easy to control spending because I can see exactly what I spend independently of any bills.

[IOBA]

- How do you keep an eye on it?  Especially for fraudulent charges?  When I was in my debit card world, all I would have to do is log into my bank accounts site or mobile app once a day to make sure everything was a-okay.  But now with multiple cards from multiple banks, that could get a little....annoying maybe?  Dangerous?

* I use Quicken money to track ALL of my bank accounts and cc's.

* I enter the transactions in daily.

* I check the bank and the cc's websites daily.

* Before Quicken, I used Excel spreadsheet.  To some degree, that is what I use now.  I do budget forecasts, paycheck plans, etc on excel.

- Does anyone use any of those financial aggragator sites/apps?  Mint?  LevelMoney?  Personal Capital?  Check.me?  Do you like any of them?

* I haven't tried those sites.  I use Quicken now.  And in the past, I have used MS Money.  Both worked really well when I input information.

- Also, and slightly off topic, slightly on topic...when do you pay?  Before the new statement so as to avoid a large balance reporting?  Or just

before the due date?  Or maybe once a week?  IS IT okay to pay once a week as a precaution?

[kroberts67]

Me, previous to fixing my credit  --> "I'm bigger, better and smarter because I don't use c/c's!"  

Interpretation: "I can't get any credit cards!" lol

I use Excel.  I've used it for budgeting for the lsat 10 years and I've built a page for my c/c's.  It's awesome and works for me.  I've heard Mint is great.  

I pay twice a month on my paydays, and in between when I have funds.  For awhile I was just paying the entire bill before the due date but lately I've tried to make multiple payments during the month to keep up.  I think it keeps me real and keeps me more aware when I'm using it that I'll need to pay it this week instead of paying one lump random sum, and obviously it keeps me from falling short and leaving a balance to report.  I also use my LOC to shuffle funds around if I need to. Many times I'll pay as soon as the charge posts.

I charge everything then just pay the cards.  I use debit for nothing but the good ol' ATM.  

I'm obsessive about logging into my accounts.  Some I'll check every day and some store cards I'll check once or twice a week.  If I'm actively using a card pretty much daily then I'll be on top of it.  As far as fraud goes, I've had USAA change out my card twice now.  They've caught it before I do.  Any accounts that let me set alerts to my phone, I do it.  Target is super slow though, my son uses my Target card and I'll get an alert of it's use maybe 3 or 4 days later.  It's the only account I have that problem with.  Funny that they had the recent problems they did...  

[kroberts67]

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@Chris679 wrote:

Also, one of the smartest things I did was open a 2nd checking account to pay all bills out off.  Direct deposit comes in one account and the only things that go out are cash and transfers to the other account.  The second account always has the money for the bills and you never have to worry about accidentally withdrawing money that you needed for a bill that hasn't cleared yet.  All my spending is done with credit cards so I find it is easy to control spending because I can see exactly what I spend independently of any bills.

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Liking this idea Chris!!  

[Chris679]

I actually started using Mint.com and it is absolutely awesome if you are using multiple cards or even one card. Because it is read only you don't have to log every time you open the app, you just open it up and it will show every transaction for all cards. It will also categorize them across all of your accounts. You can set budgets, look at bar graphs, all kind of cool stuff.

[alyssamarie]

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@Chris679 wrote:
I actually started using Mint.com and it is absolutely awesome if you are using multiple cards or even one card. Because it is read only you don't have to log every time you open the app, you just open it up and it will show every transaction for all cards. It will also categorize them across all of your accounts. You can set budgets, look at bar graphs, all kind of cool stuff.

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+1, mint makes tracking all of your purchases with different cards and accounts super easy!

[darkfrosty]

I was tempted to open a 2nd checking account with a different bank. Currently I have everything with Chase but I am thinking that maybe I should diverisfy.

As for as keeping track of things..I am OCD with constantly checking all my online accounts daily lol.

[IOBA]

darkfrosty - yes!  I recommend having at least two different banks!

If something goes wrong at one bank (bank closes, has IT issues, garnishment, etc) then you have another bank to use until the mess is straightened out.