Making a big statement

WHEN was the last time you checked your bank statement? And I don’t mean a quick glance through it to make sure you were paid on time and that your mortgage payment was taken off when it should have been.

I mean a proper study, line by line, to make sure you understand every credit and debit on it.

“Why should you have to do that?” I hear you ask. Surely the bank will just pay the debits I ask them to pay, deduct all the items I’ve bought with my debit card and credit my salary or pension or any other money transferred into my account.

Well, in a normal month that is what you would expect to happen.

But what about the direct debit you set up for a six-month trial of that new magazine?

Did you remember to cancel it at the end of the free trial period? Because the company won’t be writing to tell you if you didn’t. They’ll be deducting £24.99 or some similar amount every month starting next week.

Are you still paying for that gym membership even though you moved house six months ago, or for a satellite TV subscription you forgot to cancel when you switched to cable months ago.

What about Netflix or Amazon Prime you said you would merge with your partner’s account when you moved in together.

Quite often, it’s not a case of a company trying to rip you off, it’s simply that you’re not on top of your administration when your circumstances changed.

Log on now if you use online banking, or pull out your most recent statement and make sure all the entries are accurate.