Similar to a shepherd watching over there sheep, or a king watching over their kingdom, you should play an active watchful role over your finances. The idea for this article came out in the news this week, involving Wells Fargo employees and how some of them were creating accounts for customers..without their permission.  The story goes that in an effort to earn more bonuses for having customers create more accounts, some employees bypassed the whole customer consent/permission requirement and just opened accounts, credit cards and other lines of credit for customers.  What further made the issue worse was that often these account and credit lines came with fees. Many customers didn’t notice, and those that did were sometime charged account closure fees to  actually close their accounts.  Wow, wrong on so many levels, and I won’t go on venting about the reality of this is stuff like this happens more often than you think and unless you’re vigilant, people will get away with these types of things!

Why you should care

It’s a sad reality, but companies know that they can nickel and dime you with hidden fees or even blatant fees and that often times people won’t even notice.  Think about your own situation, when’s the last time you logged in to your financial accounts to check for recent activity? Have you ever seen a fee or charge of sorts and thought ‘eh that’s probably not a big deal’. Well it is a big deal and you should care about it! You work hard for your money and work hard to save it. Why should you give up all your hard work and not investigate a suspicious looking charge or just accept a fee as fact? Sure a random fee here and there isn’t much but a lot of little random small fees can add up to a big problem. Consider the recent study that Americans on average spend $159/year on bank fees? Side note but you should be spending $0 on bank fees! Consider switching to a credit union or an online bank It’s your money and it’s not like anyone else will care for you. Take ownership and responsibility for your finances. Watch over them and be sure you’re not being hit with random or unexpected fees!

What you should look for

Before knowing what to look for, you should have a good understanding of your accounts and how they are setup. As previously mentioned, you really shouldn’t be paying any fees to manage your money with your bank. There will inevitably be some fees in your investment accounts but you should work to minimize them. Whatever your fees may be, you should be aware of them and be on the lookout for them. If anything other than expected fees, charges or deductions appear on your account, raise the red flag and sound the alarm! It’s your money so do your best to keep an eye on it. The next logical question is how often you should be checking on your ‘flock’. Now I’m a little OCD and check almost daily (probably not helpful) and that’s a little overkill. I’d recommend checking on your finances once a week. In addition to BOLOing for unexpected charges or fees, you can also use this time to track your expenses in the form of a budget.

What you should do if you find mistakes

Despite banks’ best efforts (or malicious fees), there’s a good chance that you’ll find mistakes in your finances. One time back in high school, I found a $0.25 error and spent 30 minutes at my local bank having them fix their error. A little extreme but I got it fixed. If and when you see a mistake,  sound the alarm! Get mad and get in touch as soon as you can with the offending financial institution. Be polite but be resolute; if it was truly their mistake, they should fix it on their dime. Unlike that insane Wells Fargo scam, you shouldn’t be forced to pay a small fee to fix their mistakes. Escalate and ask for a supervisor/manager if you have to. Banks know you’re likely to be apathetic or that you’ll give up quickly. And when you are apathetic or give up, they win. Small fee by small fee, they win and when they win, they’ll win to the tune of millions in additional revenue. So, always be polite but get mad and get the error fixed!

It’s sad but the bad guys (and some good guys acting bad) know that most of us won’t check or won’t realize or won’t seek to fix mistakes that are made. Learn to respect yourself and your hard work and watch over your finances like a shepherd watches over their flock. Always keep an eye on things and when you see something off; sound the alarm!