Cost of Convenience

Those of us who remember only being able to get cash from our bank between the hours of 9 and 3 on weekdays (6 p.m. on Fridays), having to mail a check a week before a payment was due, or being forced to deal with a stockbroker despite already knowing the stock we wanted to buy appreciate greatly the convenience of modern personal finance.

The downside is that it's also easier for thieves to ruin our lives. They don't need a gun or a knife, just access to some personal information. One elderly lady whom we know has had a number of purchases made in her name and her checking accounts emptied. Armed with just her name, address, social security number, and birth date, crooks were able to make off with thousands of dollars. Not every bank will restore her money, she's worried about more break-ins of the non-physical kind, and her health suffers.

My personal to-do list now includes periodic online viewing of our financial accounts. There are services that will monitor activity for a fee, but I don't wholly trust them. Besides, personal responsibility dictates that I need to be up to speed on my own financial status, distressing though these details may sometimes be.

I do subscribe to a barebones credit reporting service that e-mails notices of new accounts being opened in my name. It also notes if anyone has inquired about my credit. (I'll safeguard my assets myself, but these agencies are needed to make sure my liabilities are not increasing without my knowledge.)

When we agreed to a 36-month no-interest payment plan on our new flatscreen TV, the credit reporting service worked as advertised. The only flagged activity last month was our new account at Best Buy. We'll see if we've bought enough protection.