Was going to write this post as an open letter to Bank of America (my bank), but decided not to because I’m sure its not just them:

As I was checking my account balance online and confirming my recent purchases, I noticed that my purchases were only dated by day and month, not by the time of day. As a college student, most of my purchases are on my debit/credit card either in store or online. What would really help me keep track of my purchases would be the time of day they were approved by Visa/Bank of America, but no that data is not there. Its not that hard for Bank of America to add a time stamp to their “check your balance” website. All they have to do is add the PHP code referring to their sql server and voila, you have a timestamp!

And its not like Bank of America doesn’t keep the timestamp data on their servers. Of course they do! So it wouldnt even cost them any capital to maintain, just the initial set up, but I’m sure they already have someone on staff that knows PHP code or the sort.

Its not just for me that a timestamp would be helpful, but it would help people catch identity theft. By seeing the timestamp the charge went through, you could make sure that you were the one who actually made the purpose or that asshole at the counter didn’t charge you twice for the same purchase.

I don’t have stats on this, but I would probably be willing to put money on it that people are making less and less purchases with cash and more purchases with a credit/debit card. Having a timestamp, would only allow people to manage and watch their accounts with a hawk eye.