I don’t know anyone who lugs around their credit card statements to devour at the cottage, at the beach, or on the subway. Novels have a reputation for being more gripping and entertaining. However, looking at your last month’s purchases line by line can be as scary as a well-crafted thriller… in addition to paying off.
Sébastien, who is not used to reading his statements, can attest to this. In April 2022, he terminated his contract with Bell for internet and residential telephony. He returned his devices and received confirmation of their receipt. In May of this year, an e-mail from Bell intrigued him: he was informed that he had an outstanding amount of $404.
That’s how he found out that the company never stopped charging him. The last two payments, however, had bounced because the expiration date on his credit card had changed. In all, he overpaid $1064.21.
Naively, Sébastien thought he would be reimbursed immediately by Bell, who recognized his mistake. “They even called me four times to hold me back,” Sébastien told me.
It’s a classic case of the right hand not speaking to the left. But Bell wanted to negotiate a deal rather than repay the full amount. He was first offered $400. Then $600. The ex-client wanted all of his money back, even though he admits he was “nono” for not looking at his statement.
By neglecting this good habit, which only takes a few minutes a month, we are indeed taking risks. Unnecessarily. That of unauthorized withdrawals. But also that of having been defrauded.
It happened to Patrick, who discovered on his Mastercard statement that he had ordered dozens of meals on Uber Eats over the previous months. Total bill: $1200. However, it is not at all in his habits. It was “in a panic” that he contacted his credit card. The Montrealer then learned that the food had been purchased in San Francisco and Amsterdam. He hadn’t set foot there.
His bank reimbursed him almost all the fraudulent amounts, which went unnoticed thanks to their smallness, between $20 and $60. Patrick looks at his balance before paying it, but doesn’t go through every expense unless the total is higher than usual. “A fraud of $1000 or $2000, it seems, but small $40 here and there, it goes under the radar”, summarizes Patrick. Some transactions, made more than 90 days ago, have not been refunded to him given the standard deadlines for chargebacks. He had his lesson!
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
There are good reasons to read your statements (and watch the movements in your bank account): to be aware of your more or less essential expenses, those that could be reduced.
To conclude Sébastien’s story, he ended up being reimbursed in full. The process only took a few days, but it was still longer than reading monthly statements. And this story frustrated him enough to tell me about it.
According to two consumer law lawyers I consulted, the telecommunications giant simply had no case. He became unjustly enriched and could not hold his ex-client responsible for his misfortunes due to his negligence, even though it stretched for almost a year.
This is good to know if ever someone tries to blame you for your carelessness.
If Sébastien’s story was settled quickly enough, recovering his due can be more painful. Pierre wrote to me about Spotify. The company continued to bill him, even though he had terminated his subscription. His first instinct was to ask American Express to stop paying for the streaming music service. His request was denied.
I innocently thought, as I imagine most people, that I was in control of the payments I made. Unfortunately for me, American Express explained to me that they could not change this payment without the merchant’s agreement.
Rock
One can understand that the contract signed with a trader must be broken with this trader. That said, joining Spotify turned out to be complicated since you had to go through the account… an account that Pierre no longer had. The website finally hid another way to communicate, but again, these steps took time.
There is another good reason to read your statements (and watch the movements in your bank account): to become aware of your more or less essential expenses, those that could be reduced. Also, how many people pay for subscriptions they forgot, like my colleague Karim Benessaieh who saved $1400 doing an hour of cleaning.1 There are also all those free services and games for the first month that stop being free before we think about canceling them.
I’ve been a big fan of pre-authorized payments for at least two decades. All my recurring bills (except Hydro-Québec) are automatically transferred to my credit card, and the entire balance of my credit card is debited from my bank account. This limits my potential expenses and spares me the management of paperwork… apart from reading my statement systematically and line by line.
Even though we know very well that it is risky to pay anything without looking, vigilance is a habit that some find difficult. It’s a bit like dental floss, I imagine. We know what is good for us, but we prefer to spend our time elsewhere.