If this is your first time visiting, check out the story behind this blog. Otherwise, please join the others by subscribing to my RSS feed or get updates via email so you don't miss any personal finance articles!

I read an article from bloomberg.com that the Pentagon has paid a small South Carolina part supplier $20.5 million dollars in freight cost over the last 6 years and it was overlooked because they have an auto-payment system that pays suppliers as long as the orders are deemed high priority.

My first reaction was stated in the second half of the title “Why doesn’t the Pentagon use FedEx and ask the suppliers to use their account for shipping“?

As I thought about this more, all of these automatic bill pay that I’m enrolled in is basically the same thing as Pentagon’s auto-payment system. Right now, I’m basically automatically paying off my credit card bills, and to be honest, I don’t look at every line of every statement ever since everything became electronic and automatic. Could someone overcharge me for something? Of course they can. Will it get through without me noticing it at this point? Possibly.

I’m sure a $20.5 million pack of bubble gum will not go unnoticed but there is a big risk here because of my trust in this automated system (or really because of my laziness). By not reviewing every line item of my credit card and making sure that there is no discrepancy, I leave the door wide open for croaks to overcharge me. I’m not suggesting that people will purposefully overcharge me, but accidents do happen.

Therefore, I really need to review my finances from now on. My longest bill is the credit card bill, so I will start review this on a monthly basis to make sure there are no hidden charges that I don’t know about. Furthermore, I will also check the transactions of all my accounts (bank, taxable stock accounts) to make sure that there are no discrepancies from now on. Doing this should reduce the risk that I am overcharged. Along with my budget report, doing this should also help give me a better handle on where I’m spending the most money.