[jwasbury]

whether you make payments via check or not, the process is called: reconciling your account. I do it at least monthly, to make sure no fraudulent charges have hit my accounts (credit cards and cash accounts). Banks are quite good at spotting and notifying these days, but its a habit and...I am a beancounter by trade so I can't help it.

when I first started dating my wife, she had a huge pile of unopened mail and I inquired about the unopened bank statements: "don't you ever check these?" She said: "I just keep track of my balance online" - ummm OK. I suppose she felt pressured so she opened the most recent statement (on top of the mail pile) and there were approximately $3000 of fraudulent ATM withdrawls in Eastern Europe. She promptly notified the bank and got her money back.