It’s important to read your credit card statement, but for many it’s intimidating. Still it’s better to be informed rather than misinformed. Here’s how to read your bank statement:

Each time your statement comes in, first check for name, address and account number. These should always be the same and accurate. Next, look at the statement date. This will help you to stay organized and will show you the transactions that occurred between the last month’s bill until now. The next thing to check for is your payment due date. This is the date that payment must be received by the company. Then there is also the minimum payment due. You want to know how much you must absolutely pay towards your debt. You are always encouraged to send more.

Finding accidental charges. Believe it or not, your company can make mistakes too. You should read your report and see if there are any additional or dual charges that should be disputed. If you wait too long to dispute charges, it may be too late and you’ll still be liable for paying them.

Non approved charges. You may also find when looking at your statement that there are unapproved charges on your account. If you don’t read your statement, you won’t notice the discrepancies.