Do you balance your checkbook monthly and are you glad you do?

I do my banking online and usually record my ATM receipts once a week on average and check for cleared checks, balance out. I’ve never found an error and actually I am pretty good at keeping track in my head.

I do not balance my checkbook, ever. Like @Coloma I have a good idea of what is in the account and have enough of a cushion so i do not have to sweat the small stuff. I look at statements monthly to make sure there are no surprises but have never found any.

Goodness, no. I last balanced my checkbook in about 1979, under duress. I do check my addition and subtraction with a calculator now and then, and every once in a while I deduct some arbitrary amount from the balance to cover errors.

Lest you think this is because I’m so rich, the fact is that I’ve done the same thing for as long as I’ve had a checkbook, whether my balance routinely remained in the thousands or routinely went below $20. I don’t think I’ve ever paid an overdraft charge.

One thing I never, ever do is use my bank card for debits. I know I would never remember to post deductions and would lose control within a week.

I check my account to balance it at least once a week on line.

I also bank online. I check my bank accounts almost daily to make sure everything is correct. I’ve never found a mistake. When I pay my bills, I make a hard copy list of every bill and every amount to deduct from my balance. I keep a running tally in my head of what is in my accounts.

Yes, although I no longer feel haunted by my father’s dictum to “get it right down to the penny.” If I’m within $50, that works.

I too never use a debit card, and I too have never had an overdraft or any surprises.

Although most of my banking is also done on line, every month I write 5 or 6 checks so I do the paper part as well.

I balance my finances on a daily basis online. I rarely transact on a cash level, so I can account for it all. I use a program to pull all my funds and account balances and review it once a day.
Yes, very happy and rewarding to know where I stand financially.

I don’t even know where my chequebook is! I cannot remember the last time I wrote a cheque.

I also don’t officially ‘balance’ my bank account. I always know what I owe, how much I am saving and how much I have to spend though. I just keep a mental note of where we are up to financially.

I keep my records accurate to the penny. Yes, I’m glad that I’m that way. I always have been.

I haven’t balanced my checkbook since the mid-1980’s. When I still got paper statements, I would look at them for anything untoward. If I recognized everything, I put it aside. Once I got online banking, I quit getting paper statements and quit having my checks returned to me. I look at our accounts at least once a week if not more and I know what should be going in and out of them.

I’ve bounced exactly one check, in 1986, and it was due to a subtraction error that I made.

I balance it every month as soon as I get my statement. Better to keep close track of it before mistakes get ahead of you.

This is especially true since we use our debit card so often… even more than writing actual checks. It’s really easy to forget to enter debit card transactions!

No, but I check my balance every week to make sure I’m not spending too much, and I read through the bank statement carefully each month to make sure there’s no mysterious or fraudulent payments.

When I first got a checking account, I balanced my checkbook constantly. Every purchase/deposit was immediately entered into my checkbook. I always rounded purchases up to the next dollar and deposits down to the nearest dollar so that I wasn’t dealing with change when balancing my checkbook. Since I started using a bank that is all online, I stopped writing anything in my checkbook. Now I just check my information online every couple of days.

I could not keep up with my ecking account balance, if I only checked it once a month.

Every two or three days works much better for me, especially since I use a debit card quite frequently.

If I don’t keep up, I will undoubtedly mess it up.