My mother actually got me into online banking. I LOVE that I can go in and automatically set up payments for a date that is convenient for me and they are handled automatically. My paycheck is direct deposited and I have a lot of our bills just auto draw-we always know what some of the utilities are going to be, and our cell phone and cable bills are automatically withdrawn too.

By having the bank do the work, I never have to worry about checks not clearing in a timely manner, or payments getting missed. Most all my bill payees have electronic transfer-only 2 of our utilities are sent actual checks.

Because I get paid once a month, I just go in to the bank account around the 27th of the month and set up the payments for the next month to draw on the next business day after payday. I never write checks any more, so I don't even have any. I had an odd bill from an ambulance company that I even set up in the bill pay, then I deleted it because it was a one time bill. I recently went to the bank to get a bank check to send a friend who had paid for concert tickets for us. The gal at the bank said I could just set her up in my bill pay and the bank would send her a check. Since this is a fairly common thing with us, I'll just keep her as a payee for the next time I need to send her money.

Bank errors are not uncommon and if it is a bank error they will take back the money. I would just go to the bank and get a printout of your last month's transactions.

I pay everything online, but balance my statements manually. I have two businesses, and have to reconcile the accounts in my accounting software. It takes moments, and I have permanent records. I do my household accounts the same way, at the same time.

Do NOT close the account. I closed out my Mom's account after she passed away and then received a final statement in which I noticed an incorrect bank fee...thank you wells fargo. They told me if the account was still open, they would be able to make a correction, but once the account is closed, there's nothing they can do.

Is the amount exactly $5,000? Maybe your husband deposited it? In any event, you can do a search of that exact amount of money via your on-line statements, or you could ask someone at the bank to do that search.

I know this is a very stressful time for you, and perhaps your DH's physical issues are why you jokingly mentioned not telling him, but that makes me wonder if you and he have full and open communication about your finances? That's definitely not an area in which you want to be shielding one another's awareness. I don't mean that to sound snarky, but just wanted to encourage you to be transparent with him in this regard -- although I do understand that you must have a very strong desire to protect him from stress and strain as much as possible right now.

I don't understand what you've said has happened either, but as others have stated, do not close the account. Sign up for online banking. It's the way of the world these days.

As others have said no reason to close the account and go electronic. I've been using Quicken for over 25 years, downloading my bank transactions to it and reconciling electronically. The reconcile takes about 30 seconds because it's always spot on to the penny. I also pay all my bills online through my bank. I don't recall my bank ever making a mistake during this time. I've called them on a few things but they were always correct.

Ask dh if he deposited some money in your groceries checking account? He might have done so electronically.

When you get your online account set up, many systems will let you pull some level of electronic records back in time (instead of separate statements). If not, the bank will be able to do it for you. You will be able to see any anomalies pretty quickly as the checks and automatics debits (plus deposits) will be obvious.

I pay as many bills as possible with my credit card, so I can get points, and I have automatic payments set up to pay my CC balance. I rarely use my debit card, except to get cash from an ATM. There are more consumer protections with a credit card than a debit card, and of course points! I can't remember the last time I wrote a check.

A few years ago my friends and I started using Square Cash when we needed to send each other money. It's really easy to use, and the money is directly deposited into their accounts. And it's free.

Sorry I didn't get back here sooner. Running, I have to balance the checkbook because I could possibly (which I obviously did), write down the wrong amount for a check I wrote, or for a deposit. Don't people carry check registers anymore? Even with a debit card you still have to record the purchase.

I have duplicate checks, so I'm fine with that. However, when it comes to recording those checks in the register, the could be for $193 but I record $139 instead. Apparently that's a common error.

If you all use debit cards, don't you record the amount? I have to have a check register so I can look at it anytime I want.

Online banking is fine and dandy, but it doesn't tell me what I recorded in the register, and had I saved them all, it would be 25 years worth. And the problem lies in one, or many of those registers.

Jen, I was just joking about not telling DH. Meaning if I did find an extra $5,000, I just might buy me something. Like the time I bought a $400 purse and of course being a man he had no idea. ;)

I had to have made a mistake on a deposit. No one in their right mind wouldn't cash a check for that large amount.

Sure wish it was a nice tax refund I didn't record. Unfortunately, we're way past getting any type of refund.

I'm going to do a wait and see for the next few months, get the online banking, and if the extra money is still there, I'm going to have to close the account and open a new one. The only drawback is contacting insurance companies of our new account. Especially Blue Cross. The idiots.

At least I found $500! But yes, this is a trying time, I have so much on my mind it's hard to concentrate.

I write a check to my gardeners and the rare check for something that doesn't take a card. We put everything on the credit card and pay it off monthly. Or we pay cash. I haven't kept a check register for ten years at least.

I never use a debit card. If my credit card is compromised, I have no problem waiting while the bank researches and reverses the charges. If my debit card is compromised, then they have access to my cash. And that's harder to live without and harder to get back.

Just go to the bank and have them review transactions on their system. You can clear it up and forget about it.

I still don't understand why you would need to close the account. Just go talk to the bank.

Even with a debit card you still have to record the purchase.

Just keep the receipt till you've been through your statement or checked your account online.

I'm going to do a wait and see for the next few months, get the online banking, and if the extra money is still there, I'm going to have to close the account and open a new one.

You've got a lot on your plate right now, but when things settle down a bit, go to the bank or sign up for online access to your account and straighten it out. It's better than always having another subconscious worry nagging away at you. Both the banks I deal with will let you search deposits by dollar amount on their sites, so if it is just a $5K at once deposit you'll see it immediately. Your banker can do this, too.

Don't people carry check registers anymore? Even with a debit card you still have to record the purchase.

We don't. No need to with online banking, as it's all right there. It even shows transactions that are pending but haven't cleared yet, both debits and credits, as well as automatic payments that are coming up.

I did not have to go to the bank to set up online banking. Make a phone call, see what they say and give yourself some relief! Why let this nag you for even another day?

I also don't see what closing the account has to do with anything. If it's a bank mistake the bank will find it even after you close the account, and they will bill you for it. If the money is yours, enjoy it!

Oak, when you are set up with online banking you can see your banking activity immediately. (Your debt card transaction shows in real time.) really no need to record everything in a register anymore unless you keep writing paper checks that take a while to mail and be cashed.

I wrote a total of 7 paper checks in 2016.

We still write several checks for utilities every month (very, very small companies), and the checks show up immediately on our online account. I can see the image of the front and back of the check if I click on it in the 'register.' It's very easy.

As someone who puts silly things off thinking they will be a big deal I would get this bank thing figured out. I can't imagine wringing your hands over this and every thing else. I would go to the bank and talk with your friend. Someone will sit down with you and walk you through it.

I haven't read all the comments above, so apologies if I repeat what others have already said.

I'm super anal about my checking account. During my married life my husband always did the checkbook balancing and bill paying. All I did was sometimes screw up and forget to give him an ATM withdrawal notice. [I can't remember the last time I withdrew money from an ATM machine.]

After he died, it was all on me. I switched to online banking and bill paying but...I still kept a checkbook register to this very day. I realize it seems like overkill, but it gives me a tangible tracking system, something I can look at and hold in my hand. I get a monthly statement mailed to me and I enjoy balancing my checkbook with it. It's very Zen to me.

I still write every penny I spend in a budget binder I keep. It keeps me sane.

Side note: Back when my mom was in assisted living and still fairly sharp, she told me she was running out of money. It didn't make sense to me, so I asked to see her checkbook. She'd made an error in her favor and had moved a comma one place to far to the left. Instead of $2,500, she actually had $25,000 in the account. At that moment I made arrangements to take over her financial matters and she never had to worry about money again.

I too don't at all understand why you still feel you need to close the account.

What you do need to do is find out whether the $5000. is your money or the bank's. Don't spend it until you find out.

Oak, I wouldn't use a wait and see approach. You just need to go to your branch and sit with someone so they can help you get set up online and figure out what your actual balance really is.

As you can see by the many responses there are some who keep a register and others who don't. You can do whatever makes you more comfortable but by using a debit card and even paying your bills through the bank online, the balance in your account will always be real time and balanced. (Unless of course you pay for something as a credit instead of debit then it takes a couple of days to clear)

With online banking, you don't have to do auto payments either. For us, there will never be a day when a company will have direct access to our account to pull funds out. No no no. Instead I go in and pay my bills monthly manually. No checks to mail or records to keep. It's all there for me to see whenever I need to. And, the money for each check is pulled from our account before the its sent so again, the balance I see is always real time.

The way you're handling your account right now is not only out dated but it's much more vulnerable to error.

Just go to your branch, tell them you have a descrepancy you can't seem to get resolved and you need help. Then ask them to get you set up for online banking and start checking your account every day. It will make your life so much easier!

Online banking is fine and dandy, but it doesn't tell me what I recorded
in the register, and had I saved them all, it would be 25 years worth.
And the problem lies in one, or many of those registers.

Yes it does. You can look at transactions years back. If you get in the habit everyday or two, I check everyday but not always on weekends, you will see all transactions. On the rare occasions I use a check, I jot it down on a notepad next to my main computer and check it off when it clears.

Actually, checks are the most troublesome, as debits clear right away but sometimes a check to a person can be "out there" for a long time.

I haven't had a check register for at least ten years and I was late to the game.

And there is no reason you need to know what you did 10 years ago at the the bank but you can get statements that far back.

It's empowering Oakly, and you have everyone here to ask questions to that will help you with the smallest of issues. Do it.

And I don't think you messed up "big time" at all. A big mess up is when you forget that you made a withdrawal, and end up with multiple overdraft fees!

Agree with the crowd --- you don't have to stop using checks if you have online access. You can use the online access just to look at your balance or a particular transaction anytime you want and avoid calling and having someone else look it up for you -- and waiting to get to a real person. People had registers to keep track until they got a statement. With online access, you always have a statement available. You can still keep a paper register and verify it against the bank statement -- and you probably would want to do that for at least a few months to make sure you were comfortable with how everything was working for you.

Please don't close the account just because you aren't sure of the balance. There is no reason to close the account and there may be reasons not to. If there is a bank error, they will find you and get the error corrected. If you have anything outstanding, it will create a mess when it finally comes through. If something happens to your DH, I would think you are better off with a long standing account than a new account you just opened.

Just wanted to echo others' comments that it's so much easier to find what causes an unexpected account balance w/ online banking , since all transactions are shown & I don't have to rely on my diligence in recording every transaction. I can look @ images of all my cancelled checks as well. Statements are online too.

An overage could be because somebody refunded something to your account, maybe...?

I also don't use auto-pay. My credit union emails notifications when new bills arrive & new bills are flagged on the page as well.

Another one who loves online banking. I usually check my account multiple times a week because it is so quick and easy. I do not use debit cards except when traveling and I pay as much as I can with credit cards because they are safer than debit and I earn miles or cash back. I also check my credit card accounts frequently. I don't take the check registry with me because I don't take checks with me.

I just looked at my check registry and I've only written 15 physical checks in 3 months. Many of the utilities won't take credit cards so I use online banking and the bank sends them the check.

I think you'll really like the convenience once you get used to it. My kids even deposit checks by taking a photo of the front and depositing it that way.

"People had registers to keep track until they got a statement. With online access, you always have a statement available."

Yes! There simply is not any reason to still be manually writing down expenses and doing arithmetic in a paper register, other than what several folks have noted-they enjoy doing it as a mental exercise or self-soother, which is fine but which really isn't anything to do with the actual management of money.

We write a couple of checks a month - our church and our groomer. Sometimes checks to other charitable organizations. I do not carry a checkbook and I don't have need to use the register because the checks have a copy. Everything else can be paid on-line, or by credit or debit card. I never use debit card for atm (cash).

Is the difference $500 or $5000?

How was it your error?

I once had over three thousand dollars suddenly appear and later disappear. That was not good so I kept my eye on it and later some money came in again. I went to the bank and said this is not my money and they removed it. Then I left that bank. Maybe they were using my account to store money or someone was. Who knows. I would think that if I took it out and used it, someone would notify me of an error and ask for it back.

Do not close your account and do not delay in going to the bank. You aren't any better off closing the account. It solves nothing, and in fact may not look great on your credit rating. And most banks want to serve and keep long time customers. So take advantage of their personal services and talk to someone in person. Maybe take your son with you.

Yes, you can still keep your paper check register if you want to. And you can still write checks. I probably don't write but 2-3 a month now for this or that (a trades person doing work at one of our rental properties, or a mail-in charity donation or some such).

Another benefit to having an online account is that if you have a savings account (even a small one) and a checking account at in the same bank, you can have funds automatically transferred to your checking account in the event of an overdraft. If you are worried about overdrafts, it would be worth your peace of mind. Or you can go into the account and transfer money from one account to the other.

Bumble, online banking won't show me what I wrote in the register. That's where I made the mistake.

Tina, the amount is $5000, but I found where I didn't add a $500 deposit not long ago, which now brings the missing money to 4500. I must have done that quite a bit. :)

I'm going to sign up for online banking, but I'll still keep my register. I don't want to have to get online every time I need to find a check I've written or my immediate balance. But I will keep an eye on the balance though, just not every day.

And I think to save time and money I'll start paying more of our bills online too.

Good advice from everyone, thank you! I'll try to sign up today if I have a minute.

Online banking will show you what should have been written in your check register, as well as your balance at any given time. You can also choose to not receive paper statements if you have an online account.

Yes, I still use a check register to record transactions. I use online banking to check my account and make sure my records and the banks records are in agreement.

I think what Oakley is saying is online banking won't show checks that have not cleared, and it won't. So if she made a mistake there, the online banking is not going to help. I get that. But it will help in many ways. I don't check ours daily either. But I also never have a need to call the bank - you can get needed info online. I think in using online banking you'll find that you won't have a need to write many checks and things will be easier to keep up with.

FWIW, if not for checking my online banking account weekly, I never would've caught unauthorized activity (a.k.a. identity theft) in time - twice!

Good point Carolb. I check our account every couple of days and had logged in within a couple of hours of our funds being pulled by someone who had gotten my ATM number some how. They had cleaned our house fund account with several thousand in it out.

Let me explain this again. I know all about online banking, how to do it, how to transfer money, look at debits and credits, balances, etc.

What it doesn't do is show what the person wrote in their check register after they threw the register in the trash. I could find a 5,000 deposit online dated 5 years ago, but that doesn't mean I recorded the correct amount in the register I threw away. I'm SOL. lol.

Time will be the only way to know if it's safe to put the money back in checking or to open a new account. We use two banks so I need to think about this some more.

Here's a great example of why I like using a check register. During the insurance fiasco I paid the premiums over the phone. That was a day dh was in the hospital and my mind was everywhere. Two days later I received a bill in the mail for the amount of the premium. It completely slipped my mind that I had already paid it by phone so I wrote a check, put it in the envelope and stuck it in the mail box. Before the mail came it dawned on me I paid it on the phone. I checked my register and sure enough I did.

I like being able to just grab the register and take a quick peek than doing it online. Takes too long.

What's going to be fun is checking the account online every day to make sure that 5 grand is still there. LOL.

Oak, you could use your phone, go to your banking app, and see that you had paid the insurance company if you had paid them using your online 'Bill Pay' banking.

...and if you need to go back a few years to see who you paid, or what deposits were made, you quickly find it online. Actually faster then leafing through a register.

Maddie, it's faster to just grab the register out of my purse, for me anyway. No logging in which takes too much time.

I agree about finding things online if I need to, but it still won't show what I wrote down. I just like having a register to look at.

I'm beginning to think you should let your son or husband manage the checking acct. (*_*)

Tina, the amount is $5000, but I found where I didn't add a $500 deposit not long ago, which now brings the missing money to 4500. I must have done that quite a bit. :)

You would have the answer in 20 minutes with one phone call, or a quick search online. It doesn't matter at all what you recorded if you recorded incorrectly several times. And if that's the case, then what is the point of recording at all? What made you realize you had $5000 (now $4500) in the first place if you glance at your monthly statements? I'm completely confused, but I hope you figure it out soon.

Oakley, I think that you are making too much of this.

I know that the stress of your husband's illness is probably making you feel a bit out of control. Then you discover that you have made an error (something all of us humans do from time to time) in your checking account, which you thought that you had perfectly under control. I think that is leading to you making this into a big problem, when really, it isn't.

As I said before, it would be a problem if you had accidentally overdrawn, and were stuck with overdraft fees, but that's not the case here. Maybe you'll never figure out what went wrong with your check register. It doesn't really matter.

What matters right now is that you take care of yourself, and realize that you cannot control everything, and that's okay. Cut yourself some slack. You are dealing with a lot right now. Here's a big (((((HUG))))) from me.

Oakley, why did you throw your check register in the trash? If you are going the paper route for your checking account, you need to keep those. I keep the paper statements also.

Frankly, I don't see what the problem is. Confirm your balance with the bank, or wait until your next statement to confirm the balance, and go on from there.

You are correct that online banking won't show you what you wrote in the register. But online banking--or visiting or calling a banker--will show you what is actually in your account. What you recorded in your register doesn't matter. What is actually in the account matters. Most checks clear within a couple of days to a week. Stop using the account for a week or so, then check online or call the bank. Then you will have an accurate statement of what is in the account and can start afresh.

Also, if you made a simple arithmetic error or errors in your register, how will closing the account help matters? Is this the first time you may have made an arithmetic error? If not, do you always close your accounts because of math errors?

Now that you have the discrepancy down to $4500, look for a transposition mistake. When you can divide the discrepancy by 9, that is often the cause. A transposition is when you write 59 as 95, for example.

I am also very confused about why the account would need to be closed?If I read correctly, it has money in it, is not overdrawn - quite the opposite, in fact. Having more money in a bank account than I thought wouldn't make me despair; I'd likely be happy about it.

Have I missed something? Were there checks that did not clear? If so, the register wouldn't show that. Also, my statements do flag any missing check numbers. But then FWIW, I have carbon checks, which saves a lot of time & I keep them for several years before discarding. It's true I write so few nowadays, that it takes me months to use up a checkbook.

Is the fear that someone has hacked the account?

cyn, that's a cool trick. At first I thought, wait, not all transpositions are divisible by 9. Ah, but their difference is. Very slick.

I record my checks in the register AND do online banking. Except I carry a check in my wallet and don't always remember to record it. Everything that can be paid online is paid online, some automatically because we have a history of forgetting to pay bills on time.

I'd suggest going to the bank and making them earn their fees by helping you figure it out. They won't mind. Set up online banking just so you can double check what you do in your checkbook. You don't need to pay bills online or do ANYthing with it. Just use it to verify any questions between statements. You might never have to go online. But no reason not to have access to the tool if a situation comes up. Ignore it the rest of the time.

I have an electronic check book for 15+ years and find that it has some benefits. It is an older version of Money/Quicken. The one thing that I like is that it is easy to find old expenses. Case in point--we were curious what we paid for a kitchen face lift years ago. I had categorized all of the expenses so it made it easy to look in that category and see what we paid to each vendor. On line banking wouldn't have done that for me nor a paper register.

Our DD2 is getting married and I am itemizing checks written for her wedding. Of course this won't help what goes on a CC.

I also have been using Quicken for over 15 years and really
love the program. I have it linked to my bank, and it will download my
transactions into the program and it also allows me to send checks for free.
Like RNmomof2, I assign an income/expense category to all transactions,
and there is a field where you can put a more detailed explanation. Quicken
costs $40 or so, and I upgrade every other year. It’s very handy when it
comes time to do my taxes since I can download a report of all transactions for
the year. It does take a little time to
set it up initially.