Tracking your expenses – and comparing against your income – is still the best starting point when you’re trying to intentionally save. But sometimes, there’s no time for all that. I get it.
If you’re in a busy season, that doesn’t mean your saving has to fall by the wayside. There are still incredibly easy things you can do right now to monitor your money so that you stop overspending.
Enter online bank account alerts.
Who doesn’t love getting that email or notification when it comes time to pay that credit card bill? (Probably every single of us, if I had to guess.)
p.s. If you don’t have notifications set up when your card bill is due, and you’ve been late paying it….start there. Seriously, open another tab and do this right now.
But bank alerts serve a higher purpose. They can be a really useful tool to help us stay on top of our spending…especially when we’re too pressed for time to dig into the details ourselves.
That said, here are 3 bank alerts you should definitely set up today (that I’ve also set up myself).
Alert 1: Get notified any time your credit card balance exceeds a certain amount.
The gist: As you tack on expenses each month on your credit card, you may not be aware of how high the balance is getting. By setting up an alert like this, you tell the bank to notify you when your balance hits an amount that you feel is significant.
How it curbs overspending: We each generally have that one, mystical credit card balance number that just hits us where it hurts. But we don’t always know when we’ve hit it: not until we log into our account, or our statement comes due. With this alert, we essentially get the heads up when it happens – which means we can adjust course for the rest of the month if needed.
How to set this up: Log into each of your credit card accounts and find the alert or notification settings. See if they give you the ability to receive alerts when your balance hits a certain amount (and whether they let you set that amount. Even better if they allow you to set up alerts for multiple balances.)
Ok. On to the next.
Alert 2: Get notified any time an individual transaction exceeds a certain amount.
The gist: When you’re watching your wallet, you want to stay away from big, unnecessary purchases. And if you’re sharing cards with children or other family, you don’t want to be caught off guard by anything unexpectedly high. By setting up an alert like this, you get the paper trail of those too-high expenses.
How it curbs overspending: The transactions have already happened in this scenario. But at worst, these alerts remind you of what those big purchases were (and may be a forcing mechanism for you to reconsider). At best, they’re a great way to monitor for unexpectedly high expenses – either from yourself, other authorized account users, or fraudsters.
How to set this up: Log into each of your credit card accounts and find the alert or notification settings. See if they give you the ability to receive alerts when individual transactions exceed a certain amount. Then, set that amount. It should be high enough that you’d want to flag it. Don’t set it too low and get notified about everything: that will desensitize you, which defeats the point of this!
Okay gang. Final alert.
Alert 3: Get notified any time your cash accounts dip below a certain amount.
The gist: Even if you choose not to pay close attention to your expenses, you do always need a handle on your cash situation. Cash in your checking or savings accounts is what keeps you going, since this is typically what you use to pay bills or debts. By setting up an alert for this, you never have to worry about being in the dark when your cash reserves fall too low.
How it curbs overspending: When you don’t have the cash that you think you have, the rest of your spending picture falls into place. This alert is probably the most important in the journey to financial stability, especially if you typically find yourself in constant overdraft situations.
How to set this up: Log into each of your cash accounts – checkings AND savings – and find the alert or notification settings. See if they give you the ability to receive alerts when those account balances dip below a certain amount. Set an amount that’s low enough to be a red flag, but still high enough that it gives you room to pivot or recover if needed.
In short, let’s put our (banking) systems to work for us.
And if you want a video breakdown of the tips above, be sure to check out these tips from the video on my channel!
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