Free service helps monitor your bills for fraud, unauthorized charges
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SEATTLE -- You know you should check your credit card statement every month to look for errors or fraudulent charges.
But let's be honest. Most of us don't. We do a quick scan - if that - then pay the bill.
But what if there are bogus charges on your bill? You could end up paying for things you don't want and didn't order.
A new service promises to take a bite out of credit card fraud. It automatically checks your monthly credit card statements for you.
Michael McDaniel is always on the go. He lives on the Eastside and works in Downtown Seattle. With three kids at home, the last thing he wants to do after a long day is pay the bills.
"Realistically, I don't even get to the stack of stuff that comes in from the mail, but once every couple of months," he said.
McDaniel knows he should check his credit card bill before he pays it. But most times, he just gives it a quick once-over.
"It's easy for little things to slip through here and there," he said.
Not anymore. He now has BillGuard watching his back.
The service identified five charges it believed were fraudulent, including two charges of $69.95 for a grant search service he didn't knowingly sign up for, and three charges of $89 for diet pills and hair care products he did not want or order.
"And as soon as I looked into them, it was clear those weren't authorized," said McDaniel.
Thanks to BillGuard, he had the charges reversed.
"Bill guard is the world's first bill monitoring service that is capable of actually checking your bill for you and finding things such as hidden fees and billing errors that are very hard for you to find, as well as fraud your bank has missed," said Yaron Samid, CEO and founder of BillGuard.
Here's how it works. BillGuard scans your credit or debit card bills, and targets questionable charges and suspected fraud.
The company's computers gather information from other users and complaints on the Web to spot problems.
"We build technology that can actually turn that data into actionable knowledge that is used by our system to then scan your credit card and debit card bill, and identify charges on your bill that have been complained about by others on theirs," said Samid.
McDaniel says he's already recommended the service to others.
"Every time they've saved me money, I'll get on Twitter and tell all my friends, 'There's another fraudulent charge caught by BillGuard,'" he said.
And here's the best part -- the BillGuard service is free. Now, maybe you're wondering about privacy and security. You only give BillGuard
read-only access to your credit or debit card statements. The company says that information cannot be used to transfer money or make any changes to your accounts.
BillGuard also promise it will never share your data with any third party.
But let's be honest. Most of us don't. We do a quick scan - if that - then pay the bill.
But what if there are bogus charges on your bill? You could end up paying for things you don't want and didn't order.
A new service promises to take a bite out of credit card fraud. It automatically checks your monthly credit card statements for you.
Michael McDaniel is always on the go. He lives on the Eastside and works in Downtown Seattle. With three kids at home, the last thing he wants to do after a long day is pay the bills.
"Realistically, I don't even get to the stack of stuff that comes in from the mail, but once every couple of months," he said.
McDaniel knows he should check his credit card bill before he pays it. But most times, he just gives it a quick once-over.
"It's easy for little things to slip through here and there," he said.
Not anymore. He now has BillGuard watching his back.
The service identified five charges it believed were fraudulent, including two charges of $69.95 for a grant search service he didn't knowingly sign up for, and three charges of $89 for diet pills and hair care products he did not want or order.
"And as soon as I looked into them, it was clear those weren't authorized," said McDaniel.
Thanks to BillGuard, he had the charges reversed.
"Bill guard is the world's first bill monitoring service that is capable of actually checking your bill for you and finding things such as hidden fees and billing errors that are very hard for you to find, as well as fraud your bank has missed," said Yaron Samid, CEO and founder of BillGuard.
Here's how it works. BillGuard scans your credit or debit card bills, and targets questionable charges and suspected fraud.
The company's computers gather information from other users and complaints on the Web to spot problems.
"We build technology that can actually turn that data into actionable knowledge that is used by our system to then scan your credit card and debit card bill, and identify charges on your bill that have been complained about by others on theirs," said Samid.
McDaniel says he's already recommended the service to others.
"Every time they've saved me money, I'll get on Twitter and tell all my friends, 'There's another fraudulent charge caught by BillGuard,'" he said.
And here's the best part -- the BillGuard service is free. Now, maybe you're wondering about privacy and security. You only give BillGuard
read-only access to your credit or debit card statements. The company says that information cannot be used to transfer money or make any changes to your accounts.
BillGuard also promise it will never share your data with any third party.
