A good tip to share with your students!

From Wallet Hacks:

Hat tip to Bill Dwight of FamZoo who highlighted this credit card hack (from WalletHacks) over coffee this morning (Thanks Bill!). We all know one of the problems with credit cards is the delay between purchase (Yay!) and payment (Boo!). What if you set your credit card account up to send you a text reminder soon after your purchases? Might this help to make the purchase more tangible and maybe provide a little pain that might curb our impulsive tendencies? One tweak to this that would be even more powerful: Provide your current credit card balance in the same text! No more of those moments when you open your card statement and sigh “But I didn’t realize I spent this much!” Probably not too good for the credit card companies business model, so don’t hold your breath.

Oh and there is another benefit too:

Why do I do this? It started on a lark. I was thinking about how to build a do it yourself identify theft system and found this feature in my Chase Southwest card. You can set it to notify you for any transaction over $X – where you set the X. So I set it at zero. You hear all these stories of people getting ripped off in $5 and $10 amounts because they don’t notice.

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.