Credit / Debit Card Memos

When you write a check, you can jot down a memo on it. This small 'feature' can make it much easier to keep track of what the check was written for.

The problem is, most people don't use checks most of the time anymore. I cannot count the number of times when I was looking at my statement and asked myself "what in the world is this charge?" I then need to go through all my receipts and try to figure out what I was doing around that time. Over 90% of the time they turn out to be legitimate charges. Perhaps I went to a gas station and they routed it through some company in India, or maybe I ordered something online and the charge went through some company in England. Sometimes the names on the statements seem to be little more than random letters, being an acronym for some organisation.

Whatever the reason, the names on a credit or debit card statement are frequently of little use when attempting to track down charges. The ambiguity can make it difficult to be responsible and aware of what is being done with your cards.

There is a simple solution. Credit card and debit cards could allow you to enter memos when using them.

This would be easiest to implement online. Whenever there is an online 'purchase' forum, there simply would need to be an extra box to allow the user to type in a quick note for themselves: "B-day gift for mom","New laptop case","Online Magazine subscription." Basically something to help a buyer remember what those lines on his or her statement represent.

It would be a little harder at stores and gas stations. After all, you don't have keyboards on hand there. You do however, have keypads to enter your pin. Numeric keypads are how people typed text messages for years before phones came out with full keyboards. If I counted right it would only take 6 key presses to type in 'gas' at a gas station. Or perhaps a person simply enters in a 3 letter combination that is their own secret signal to themselves that the charge is legit. It is not the most ideal of ways to do it, but it is relatively easy to implement.

The hardest would be at places like restaurants, where you had your card over. The best way I can think of in this regard is for them to have a 'memo' line underneath the signature line. They would then need to scan that in and send it to your credit card company.

Most places would not need additional hardware. It would simply be a matter of updating the software that deals with the cards. If people don't want to take advantage of it, they would not need to. But for those that did, it could greatly simplify the 'balancing of their checkbook.'

Ultimately this would require two things to happen. Credit and debit card companies would have to put in the system to support this. Then stores, gas stations, online retailers, and restaurants would need to support it as well. The second point would be the harder to enforce. A credit card company could easily require online retailers to have a memo form (or otherwise would not honor any charges) because updating online checkout would simply be a matter of adding one line of code. For other stores, they could provide 'Memo Secure' stickers for retailers to advertise that they are helping customers protect themselves.

Its something that could take awhile to be implemented. But then again, it took awhile for debit card or even credit card support to become widespread. The only way the system will improve is if we begin working to improve it.