I agree with the pimped out excel workbook. The more I do this, the more robust it gets. No way anyone can really remember all the details of every card and purchase but Excel makes it easy.

when I was just starting I totally forgot the date when my statement cuts on one card and a day before the cut, I swiped it for MS activity for $2K :( It posted for my statement for that cycle and although it was reported to CRA as my 'highest' balance, I was still within 10% CU so no harm done. But I still prefer to be with 5% CU to keep my score in the lower 800s.

This minor blunder just made me more careful on being mindful of statement cuts for each card so I know when NOT to swipe them.

Cash
 

Not treating VGCs and MOs like cash. Fortunately I don't think I ever lost any, but the times I left them laying around or forget to lock my car could have been devastating. (My car looks lie crap and doesn't encourage theft, but you never know.)

I have a certain pocket in my bag where I keep MOs and VGCs. That's the only place I keep them other than my wallet. Tear MO stub from MO immediately after cashier hands it to me. Stub from the MO and receipts from any purchase goes in my 'receipts bag' immediately after purchase. (I.e. ALWAYS keep MO stub separate from MO!) At least if someone steals my MO, I will still have the stub to put a stop on it.
I plan to start filling out MOs immediately after purchase, but I need to know whether it is being written to myself or Sig Other.

I did so many mistakes, not lost any money. I spend lot of time and effort for this one mistake. I intentionally overpaid 10k to USB flexperk card and wanted refund excess amount to checking account. When I called cc for refund, the CSR (idiot) instead of refunding to my checking account, he reversed the payments. I had to scan for the bp reciepts and gcs from pile of receipts and cards. It took me 6hrs to get all the receipts. After that there was endless calls to checkfree, usb, I had to make. Finally got money after 20days.
It was good lesson, Now I ask all the questions before making any request to CSR. Avoid calling if possible. Separate ziplock for reciepts and GC for billpay.

Thrashed VRs after reloading them, only to figure out the reloads had not gone through for some reason when I checked my BB balances the next day.

Lucky for me, trash wasnt picked up due to a storm.

After that I kept VRs for a couple of days and checked things twice before discarding them.

I've done the same except at the office. Good thing I know what my office mates had for lunch earlier in the week when I spent an hour in the consolidated dumpster. Looking at it as found money vs. not losing the money, I'd take $1,000/hr to dig through trash.

I had a mysterious charge on my AMEX account for about $10. I called to ask about it. They did remove the charge, but I got hit with an Amex Financial review (probably because an actual human viewed my account because of the call).

Ouch! You come out ok?

I did this with the most recent version of VRs shortly after they came out. I had been using a pair of scissors to scratch off the security seal, and my heart sank when I realized I had started to take off the numbers too. Fortunately I had only started to remove part of two numbers, so I was able to guess and recover the PIN without calling.

Another time I was coming up late after work and really tired. I put the VRs on top of the junk mail, and almost shredded two VRs! :eek: Ever since I held onto them until I had fully loaded my BB account for the month and waited until I was ready to start the next month.

I think the biggest mistake is forgetting that we're dealing with real money. While becoming casual about carrying thousands of dollars around certainly makes it easier when we go to purchase our cards, VRs, MOs, etc., it opens up opportunities for carelessness that could cost thousands.

In the middle of minor mistake, hit by 2 Not sufficient funds fees from two different banks That's what happens when you have similar accounts with your SO.

Last year, I lost two $500 cards (one VR and one PP my cash), was playing with my daughter and she loves shredding the cards, mistakenly shredded the two cards (I believe) with receipts already being shredded. Tried contacted CVS, PP and Incom with no luck and I finally gave up after 2-3 months. Lessons learned, since then I never shred a single car or receipt.Now when she grow up, she will have plenty of reminders how she traveled all over the world during her childhood!

Almost too embarrassing to admit ... I took my 1st VR to WM with my new BB card, not realizing you re-load online .. Duh. Even dumber 2 or 3 CSR's tried to scan the card before the manager told them you cant reload BB with that card. Came home and did more research.

Recently paid a deposit on a vacation rental via PayPal (per owners request) clicked through too fast and the invoice for "lodging" was paid through my bank account instead of my CC (Arrival) ... Well there goes that "free" travel op

I planned on using 100k aadvantage bonus miles for a trip this year. Forgot to pay attn to statement cycle. Got the 10k spend done a day before statement cut but charges are still pending!!! The miles won't show up until next month now. Not a huge deal but not a ton of flights to my preferred island destination, don't want to risk 1st class selling out!