Make sure you’re not paying for something you didn’t know you’d signed up forfeatured
I’m going to keep this one short and sweet. Stop whatever it is you’re doing, unless like, you know, you’re doing something really important. Anyway, please take a few minutes to go on your online banking and make sure that you aren’t signed up to any direct debits that you don’t know about. Stop right there! Don’t click away thinking that this doesn’t apply to you! You’re probably sat there saying to yourself “Come on, I’m not that stupid, Jenni” and I don’t blame you. I thought exactly the same thing when I first read this tip somewhere on the internet several months ago.
“Oh the only direct debits I pay for are the gym, Netflix, Spotify and my contact lenses” I thought to myself. But did I check? No. And am I paying for something that I didn’t know about until today? Yes. As it turns out, for almost a year, I’ve had a bloody Paypal account and have been paying Paypal £5.99 a month. I don’t even know how to use Paypal. I barely even know what it is aside from the fact that eBay users use it. I don’t even know why I signed up to it and I’m too annoyed with myself to investigate further. Though I know I probably should.
Let’s say I’ve been paying for it for a whole 12 months (I can’t bring myself to actually look at the whole history) That’s £71.88! Wasted on absolutely nothing! Argh!
The annoying thing is, now that I’ve started gathering things together to start selling on eBay, I’m going to have to use it anyway! I could just leave the direct debit as it is since I’m hoping to start selling stuff in the next couple of weeks, but clearly I’m too forgetful to be trusted, and so I decided to promptly delete it just in case I forget and discover in another six months’ time that I’ve wasted even more money.
I hope that when you look in your bank account right this second to double check that you aren’t paying for anything that you don’t know about, you can smile to yourself and think “yay! It’s just Jen that is this stupid!”
Have you ever discovered any hidden nasties when checking your bank statement? I hope not, but if so, let me know in the comments.
Photo: Pocket dump
