I do the same. At Chase you can set up push alerts for any transaction greater than $0.01 (it won't accept zero).

It's nearly real-time. In any drive-thru I'll have the notification on my phone before the card is handed back to me.

Super cool, thanks for sharing this!

Also, for anyone that doesn't know: you can request an old school ATM card (not a debit card, i.e. no MC/Visa logo) from your bank and use a credit card for purchases instead.

This reduces the exposure of a critical account. And if you do become a victim of fraudulent charges, you don't have to worry about your bank account being drained immediately (possibly resulting in overdrafts, etc).

Also have two accounts:

- Account #1: salaries and deposits go here, no ATM

- Account #2: gets regular transfers from account #1, whatever you spend each week on your ATM, has an ATM, blocked on overdraft

If ATM is compromised the only money at risk is whatever is left in Account #2

This minimizes your exposure

Card skimming has become so rampant where I live that I don't ever put a bank or credit card in a gas pump.

I got a gas company card (non-Visa/MC) with a super-low limit, and when I need to buy gas I make a payment online with my phone, then pump away knowing if it got skimmed, the perps would probably throw the info out because it's not usable anywhere else, and even if they used it at the gas station, they'd only get $10.

The local sheriff was on TV last year telling everyone to only pay cash for gas — never put a credit or debit card in a gas pump card reader.

How quick does the payment from your phone go through? Australia's only just implemented fast cross-bank transfers (PayID) but the implementation compromised privacy and only works in some circumstances.

It’s not cross bank. But because I have a history of paying the gas card from a particular checking account, I get credited for it instantly.

Where do you live?

People have a lot of reason to shit on wells fargo for its previousl unethical practices (loan scandals, etc), but they do have a good feature for email notifications of every individual transaction on a credit card or debit card. The emails are quick, too, if you take out cash from an ATM the email arrives at my mail server in less than 60 seconds.