Credit Card Report
Financial News Made Easy

If you are in the habit of routinely filing your credit card statements without so much as glancing at the list of charges, you could be losing money without knowing it.

1. Changed terms
   Some credit card companies have been known to raise interest charges even for customers who pay on time.

   In some cases, customers were not notified — or were supposed to learn about the changed rates by reading lengthy, unclear letters.

   Some banks have reportedly changed (read: raise) interest rates when customers open an additional credit account elsewhere, or when a customer’s credit score was lowered.

   By taking a closer look at your statement — and all enclosures — you will be able to catch any such changes.

   We file our credit card statements in hanging folders. Each folder includes a fact sheet in the front — listing the interest rate, other details (e.g. pay-by dates and late-fee information), as well as contact information for the card issuer.

2. Incorrect charges
   Three times in the last five months our credit card statements have included incorrect charges, all from online stores.

   One charge included a shipping and handling fee that was not supposed to be added, since the store in question ran a special that promised free shipping and handling if one purchased goods totalling more than fifty dollars. A quick email to the store in question resulted not just in refund, but also in an electronic, $10 voucher to be applied to a next purchase.

   The two other mistakes came about when we were charged full price for items advertised online at a discount. In both cases the sellers involved explained that the website changes ‘went live’ before the pricing database was updated. Both stores promptly provided refunds.

   If we had merely glanced at the statements we would seen stores whose names we recognized, and lost the money we thought we had saved by taking advantage of the advertised discounts.

   When we make online purchases we take screenshots of each item, and print any and all confirmations. The screenshots are filed in a computer folder. The printed receipt or order confirmation is filed in the front of the folder corresponding to the credit card used. That way we have the information on hand once the statement arrives.

3. Unauthorized charges
   If you don’t think your private information filed with banks is vulnerable, think again.

   From today’s news:

   Heartland Payment Systems, a major payment processing company, disclosed a data breach on Monday that potentially exposed tens of millions of credit and debit cardholders to the risk of fraud in what could quickly become one of the country’s biggest data compromises.
   [...]

   Data thieves introduced the software as early as May, but Heartland did not detect the breach until it was alerted to the activity in late fall.
   [...]

   [T]he Heartland breach could wind up rivaling some of the largest data thefts. In January 2007, the discount retail chain TJX revealed that data on more than 45 million customers had been compromised. And 40 million cardholder accounts were exposed in the 2005 data compromise at a tiny payment processor, CardSystem Solutions.
   [...]

   The Heartland breach also showed that in spite of the adoption of more stringent standards and tougher oversight by banks and credit card companies, consumers are still vulnerable. All this is happening after credit card companies and merchants spent over $2 billion on establishing the Payment Card Industry standards, Ms. Litan said. “And yet the breaches continue and they get more serious.”
   - Source: Credit Card Processor Says Some Data Was Stolen, Eric Dash and Brad Stone, The New York Times, Jan. 20, 2009

   You may be notified that your credit card details were compromised in such a major breach. However, data theft can occur anywhere — at the corner store, a roadside restaurant, or even in your own home. (You wouldn’t be the first parent whose teenage child figured out how to buy jeans using your card…).

   When checking your statements, be sure you recognize each and every charge. Some of listings may show unfamiliar names. Small online stores, for instance, often use third-party services to take care of their credit card purchases. In some cases you see only the name of the third party.

4. Unwanted subscriptions
   When we first started checking our credit card statements, we were surprised to see three recurring charges for goods and services no longer needed or wanted.

   One was for a health club membership at a gym in our old neighborhood. No member of the family had been there in the past 2 years(!), but membership was re-billed until we cancelled it.

   Another charge was for a self-renewing yearly subscription to a trade magazine that — for the most part — tended to be tossed into the trash bin unread.

   The third charge was for a monthly donation to a cause we had once felt strongly about, but were now no longer interested in.

   Total monthly amount drained by these charges: $53.00 — $636 a year!

It makes good sense to check your statements. Decide you will do so starting today. Even if you do not find anything amiss, there is one additional reason that makes checking your credit card statements a good idea:

5. Re-evaluate your purchases
   Seeing a list of your expenses give you the opportunity to re-evaluate whether those purchases made sense.

   Did you realize you had spent that much money this past month?

   Did you buy stuff you really did not need?

   Have you purchased items on credit that could have been bought with cash?

   Are you using a card with the best interest rates?