How Often Do You Check Your Bank Account?

This probably won’t be a surprise to you, but a new survey shows that people between the ages of 18 to 34 check their social media accounts three times as often as their bank accounts. Looking at Facebook and Twitter: fun! Checking your bank account: responsible, but not as fun!

I check my bank account twice a day — once in the morning, and once in the evening before I go to bed. There are a couple of reasons for this.

The first is that knowing how much money you have in your account gives you a better sense of how you’re spending. You know exactly where your money is going every day. This lets you know whether not you need to reel it in a little, or if you’ve been responsible and can sensibly spend some of it. My checking account shows that I haven’t withdrawn any money or charged anything to it in the past four days, so I can go to brunch this Saturday with two of my friends, and not worry that I’m spending too much.

The second reason is that I once ate at a restaurant and paid with my card, and a few days later, I noticed that there were charges on my account that I hadn’t made. Someone had decided to make a bunch of small purchases at a bunch of Targets upstate that added up to a large sum: $1,200, and I immediately reported it to my bank. There was an FBI investigation, and it turned out that one of the waiters at the restaurant I dined at was duplicating credit and debit cards using a swiper that would save information stored on a card’s magnetic strip. Because I caught it so early, the bank was able to quickly refund my account. Justice!

So, check your bank accounts. It takes just a minute.

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