With most accounts, your bank or building society will provide you with regular statements so that you can view all the payments going into your account, payments going out of your account, any interest generated and your available balance. The statements can either be monthly, quarterly or yearly, depending on the type of account you have. These can be sent to you in the post or you can request to receive paperless statements and view them online instead.
Some cash machines will also provide mini-statements, which show transactions over a particular period of time. There are also some accounts that come with a passbook which you need to take each time you pay in or withdraw money. The cashier records your transactions and any interest paid on your savings. In this case, you may not necessarily receive statements.
It is very important to keep track of how much money is left in your account, because if you go overdrawn you may be charged. You should also regularly check statements from your bank and receipts or mini-statements from cash machines, and if you suspect something is wrong with your account, you should report it straight away.
To keep track of what cheques you have written and who you have written them to, you should fill in cheque book stubs and keep paying-in stubs until the money has arrived in your account. You should also make sure that you keep your bank statements in a safe place, as you may need them for tax purposes.
Baines and Ernst Ltd