I was contacted by a person scandalized and disgusted with the bank where I had an account because discovered that he was still paying the life insurance on a mortgage that he had paid off 18 years ago.The customer asked me how that was possible, and if he could ask the bank to correct the situation. Faced with a situation like this, the first question that comes to mind is “How is it possible for someone not to notice an expense that doesn’t want to, and that leaves her account for almost 20 years? I don’t know the person, nor do I know if there are specific reasons that justify a situation like this, but the result serves as an example to alert you to an attitude of many of us who think that taking care of our personal finances is a boring thing, and that it is not worth worth the effort. We have more to do than go through bank account statements and make lists of expenses.
Be the “policeman” of your money
Obviously, no one has to do the same as me – and everyone knows their own business – but I review my bank and credit card statements every month looking for “strange” expenses🇧🇷 And they appear very regularly. We have to be “police” of our money🇧🇷 Otherwise, we can lose a lot of money, as in the mentioned case. It’s money that probably won’t come back and that could have been managed by you and not by a banking institution. It suffices that the life insurance has not been taken out in direct association with the housing loan. That is, if something had happened to the customer, the insurance would pay the corresponding compensation provided for in the policy. If the person continues to pay, the service remains active. Also read: Improper direct debits: How to avoid and resolve
Pay attention to annual expenses and account maintenance fees
We have to be know what we want and what we are paying: line by line in our monthly and annual budget. The situation can be even worse if we have annual expenses (such as insurance) that – if we fail to analyze the month in which the account leaves – that money is lost over time. This regular “cleaning” of your direct debits applies to many other expenses: gyms, associations, computer programs, magazines and newspapers, games, etc. By the way, if you find the monthly direct debit of a bank account maintenance feeassess whether you can close it and open another one at a free bank, or transfer it to a minimum banking services account (if you only have this current account in Portugal). How long has it been since you took your bank statement or your bank app and scrolls through the previous months to see if everything is fine and if there is not “phantom” debts🇧🇷 If you find one and cancel it, you’ll be increasing yourself. Also read: Direct debit: How to use it without losing control of your accounts? 
Pedro Andersson was born in 1973 and fell in love with journalism as a teenager, at Rádio Clube da Covilhã. He graduated in Social Communication at the University of Beira Interior, and began his professional career at TSF. In 2000, he was invited to be one of the founding journalists of SIC Notícias. Currently, he continues at SIC, as a coordinating journalist, and has been responsible since 2011 for the “Savings Accounts” section, dedicated to personal finance. He tries to bring the reality of everyday life to the reports he makes.
A professional writer by day, a tech-nerd by night, with a love for all things money.