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Our Money Is discreetly Stolen Right From
Beneath Our Nose
This month I have found close to two hundred dollars taken from my credit card. This is from business that I had
heard of before and some companies I have never heard of at all. Most was from places I had used a trail period
from some product or service and I had called and canceled within that trail period. The  company had agreed to cancel the trial. But charged me for one
payment anyway, sometime companies have charged me more. Once I had called and complained, they apologized for
the billing and they did refund my money, most of the time. Some time they returned it in a timely matter, but
sometime th ey did not. Some,
even after they apologized and promised to return my money they had not done it. Some time they continue to bill
me monthly. And it may have taken several calls to get them to stop billing my card or my checking account. The
first year I became aware of this, a company I did not know had billed me for almost a whole year for $29.99. The
name of the company was very similar to an insurance company that insures small business such as mine, so I thought
it was for a legitimate insurance bill. When I called that company and complained I was told that when I had purchased
some service (I don't remember which service now) but, as part of that purchase, somewhere in the fine print, I
had agreed to purchase this completely unrelated service from this company. I was not sure how that was legal,
but it happens everyday with may of us. Our accounts are charged, for this reason or that reason. If the amount
is small we may have never noticed it. But $29.99 a month for 12 months equals $359.88. To you it may not seem
like much but if you multiply that by one thousand people billed, that equals $359,880.00 per year. Despite all
the calling and complaining I did I was only able to recoup 6 months of charges. But if you consider that for each
month billing of only one thousand people that is $29,990.00 each month. Even if they returned 50% of it because
some people never noticed the charge and never complained, that is still a good living stealing from others. Plus
the interest earned on that money deposited in a bank account, or other investments, can also add to this profit.
That is only one way our money is stolen form us every month, every year. When you get your bank statements or
your charge card statements, check it thoroughly. Don't be one of the millions of us who have unexplained charges
on our accounts and do nothing about getting it back. If you compute it, it is several millions dollars which are
quietly stolen form us and we sat back and do nothing.
But that is little monies stolen for private personal accounts. Consider the large multibillion-dollar companies.
There are billions of dollars stolen. If you cannot afford to pay someone to go over you account statements of
you small company, it maybe costing you much more in charges than you may think for these charges you think are
too small to be concerned about. You may have several of them each week or each month. So the few dollars you pay
a part time bookkeeper or accountant to find unauthorized charges this service could save you many time over for
the amount of the bookkeeper. I know that with one of my small business, there are lots of transactions each day,
and sometime a vender may bill me incorrectly or may bill me multiple times for the same service or products. Some
time we may feel that since it is a small amounts the theft may go unnoticed, and for many of us it does go unnoticed.
In this economy it seem that every hook or crook is fair game. We must be vigilant, and not let ourselves or our
companies become victims of this practice.
How do you know what charges are correct charges and which are thefts when you have so many charges? For one thing
you must keep records, accurate records. Remember the day of the checkbooks, before the explosion of credit cards?
To avoid being over drawn and the embarrassment of having a bounced check we kept check registers. Every check
we wrote we kept a record of each check number, the amount of the check, to whom it was written to and for what,
as well as the date the check was written. And of course the major reason was to make sure we did not over draw
our account, and have a negative balance. Because for every item that over drew our account there was an overdraft
charge. That is still the same today, each item on our debit card that over draws our accounts we are charged a
fee, in most cases. The fee is more than $30.00 is some places for this. I know. I have had small amounts of less
than two dollars that over drew my account, and I was charged more than $30.00 for the overdraft fees I had 5 of
them once. So I was charged $150.00 for charges totaling less than $20.00. That is how I became so interested in
my state for that month. My records indicated that I still had several hundred dollars in my account, but I learned
that because of these unauthorized charges, in just a few months that balance had wiped out, to less than zero.
I took my statements to my bank and they assisted me in getting started in getting my money back. The unexpected
benefit was they also refunded the overdraft fees. Because of the time I had allowed to expire, I was unable to
retrieve all my money, but I get most of it back. I did lean a very valuable lesson. If you care about keeping
every dollar of you money, you need to keep accurate records and you also need to reconcile your account statements
every month or more often if possible.
Check with you bank. Believe it or not people still use personal checking accounts, and there fore personal check.
So the banks still have check registers, so just ask your bank for one, they usually will give them to you for
free. It may require a little more effort and a little more writing, but what do you have an abundance of right
now, more money or more time. Would it be worth the extra effort and the extra time to make sure you don't let
yourself get ripped off? from business that I had heard of before and some companies I have never heard of at all.
Most was from places I had used a trail period from some product or service and I had called and canceled within
that trail period. The company had agreed to cancel the trial. But charged me for one payment anyway, sometime
companies have charged me more. Once I had called and complained, they apologized for the billing and they did
refund my money, most of the time. Some time they returned it in a timely matter, but sometime they did not. Some,
even after they apologized and promised to return my money they had not done it. Some time they continue to bill
me monthly. And it may have taken several calls to get them to stop billing my card or my checking account. The
first year I became aware of this, a company I did not know had billed me for almost a whole year for $29.99. The
name of the company was very similar to an insurance company that insures small business such as mine, so I thought
it was for a legitimate insurance bill. When I called that company and complained I was told that when I had purchased
some service (I don't remember which service now) but, as part of that purchase, somewhere in the fine print, I
had agreed to purchase this completely unrelated service from this company. I was not sure how that was legal,
but it happens everyday with may of us. Our accounts are charged, for this reason or that reason. If the amount
is small we may have never noticed it. But $29.99 a month for 12 months equals $359.88. To you it may not seem
like much but if you multiply that by one thousand people billed, that equals $359,880.00 per year. Despite all
the calling and complaining I did I was only able to recoup 6 months of charges. But if you consider that for each
month billing of only one thousand people that is $29,990.00 each month. Even if they returned 50% of it because
some people never noticed the charge and never complained, that is still a good living stealing from others. Plus
the interest earned on that money deposited in a bank account, or other investments, can also add to this profit.
That is only one way our money is stolen form us every month, every year. When you get your bank statements or
your charge card statements, check it thoroughly. Don't be one of the millions of us who have unexplained charges
on our accounts and do nothing about getting it back. If you compute it, it is several millions dollars which are
quietly stolen form us and we sat back and do nothing.
But that is little monies stolen for private personal accounts. Consider the large multibillion-dollar companies.
There are billions of dollars stolen. If you cannot afford to pay someone to go over you account statements of
you small company, it maybe costing you much more in charges than you may think for these charges you think are
too small to be concerned about. You may have several of them each week or each month. So the few dollars you pay
a part time bookkeeper or accountant to find unauthorized charges this service could save you many time over for
the amount of the bookkeeper. I know that with one of my small business, there are lots of transactions each day,
and sometime a vender may bill me incorrectly or may bill me multiple times for the same service or products. Some
time we may feel that since it is a small amounts the theft may go unnoticed, and for many of us it does go unnoticed.
In this economy it seem that every hook or crook is fair game. We must be vigilant, and not let ourselves or our
companies become victims of this practice.
How do you know what charges are correct charges and which are thefts when you have so many charges? For one thing
you must keep records, accurate records. Remember the day of the checkbooks, before the explosion of credit cards?
To avoid being over drawn and the embarrassment of having a bounced check we kept check registers. Every check
we wrote we kept a record of each check number, the amount of the check, to whom it was written to and for what,
as well as the date the check was written. And of course the major reason was to make sure we did not over draw
our account, and have a negative balance. Because for every item that over drew our account there was an overdraft
charge. That is still the same today, each item on our debit card that over draws our accounts we are charged a
fee, in most cases. The fee is more than $30.00 is some places for this. I know. I have had small amounts of less
than two dollars that over drew my account, and I was charged more than $30.00 for the overdraft fees I had 5 of
them once. So I was charged $150.00 for charges totaling less than $20.00. That is how I became so interested in
my state for that month. My records indicated that I still had several hundred dollars in my account, but I learned
that because of these unauthorized charges, in just a few months that balance had wiped out, to less than zero.
I took my statements to my bank and they assisted me in getting started in getting my money back. The unexpected
benefit was they also refunded the overdraft fees. Because of the time I had allowed to expire, I was unable to
retrieve all my money, but I get most of it back. I did lean a very valuable lesson. If you care about keeping
every dollar of you money, you need to keep accurate records and you also need to reconcile your account statements
every month or more often if possible.
Check with you bank. Believe it or not people still use personal checking accounts, and there fore personal check.
So the banks still have check registers, so just ask your bank for one, they usually will give them to you for
free. It may require a little more effort and a little more writing, but what do you have an abundance of right
now, more money or more time. Would it be worth the extra effort and the extra time to make sure you don't let
yourself get ripped off
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