Mom Warns Of The Easily Preventable Mistake That Cost Her Family $1,500
After investigating a mysterious monthly charge, she can’t help but feel sick at the result.
Andrii Iemelianenko | Shutterstock In a humbling and vulnerable video on her platform, mom and creator Amber on TikTok urged other adults to review their bank accounts for unsettling and unknown charges. After reviewing her recent statement, she said she regrets every month she’s failed to do so.
With so many bills, charges, and fees set for automatic payment, it's easy to always assume everything is on the up and up. However, after investigating one specific unknown monthly charge, Amber couldn't help but feel unnerved, wondering if there were more withdrawals happening just under her nose. “My husband and I made a really big mistake. It’s now cost us over $1,500.”
A mom issued a warning about the ‘easily preventable’ mistake that cost her family over $1,500.
“I have all of our bills on autopay,” Amber said. “I don’t check my account as often as I should, and that’s my fault. It’s an adulting problem for me that I should’ve been checking our account.”
While she noticed an unexplained monthly charge a few months ago, totaling just over $72, she wrote it off as one of their bills. Not necessarily worried about where it was coming from, she didn’t think twice about it — until recently, when it popped up again.
“I remember seeing this charge coming through every month, but I just assumed it was one of our bills. It was the same amount every month — I know that sounds so silly, not to know, but again, all my bills are on autopay.”
However, this time, more invested in tracking down the charge, she came to an unsettling realization — the charge was from a canceled YouTube TV subscription. Not only that, it’d been totaling up for years without her realizing.
After investigating, she realized they’d been paying for a YouTube TV subscription she’d canceled over 2 years ago.
“We canceled YouTube TV in September of 2022,” Amber said. “I did not realize that I was still getting charged since [then]... That’s over $1,500.”
After realizing their mistake and considering it a problem on YouTube’s end, she immediately reached out to their customer service with receipts in hand. However, to her surprise, they allegedly “denied” her request for reimbursement.
“They showed that our account was inactive since September 2022, when I canceled our membership,” she said. “We barely watch TV — I wouldn’t pay that amount. They cannot figure out what account is charging me.”
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Not only was this a significant amount of money, but it also seemed like an issue with billing on their end — they’d canceled it under the assumption that the charges would stop.
“I’m so mad at myself for not looking into it,” Amber confessed. "It was dumb, but here’s your reminder to know what’s coming out of your account.”
It's common for adults lacking financial confidence and literacy to neglect to examine bills and charges each month.
An important piece of the story that many commenters alluded to is that many adults who grew up without learning financial literacy or common healthy money habits often don’t responsibly monitor their accounts.
Especially if they’re making a comfortable salary and aren’t constantly worrying about having enough money to purchase basic items, they’re not forced to go into their bank accounts and check.
“I can’t imagine having enough money that I didn’t need to check my accounts before every bill,” one person said in the comments. “But that’s not to say you’re doing something wrong. Don’t worry; as adults, we’re all stretched thin.”
In a follow-up video, Amber said her requests with YouTube have been “denied,” leaving her stranded trying to figure out how to stop these charges. “How can I cancel an account I don’t have access to?” she desperately asked. “I’m in the process of waiting for yet another email from them.”
Commenters urged her to take alternative approaches to remedy the situation, including removing her cards from PayPal, reaching out to PayPal directly, and continuing to badger YouTube for help. “This would be my very last resort,” she said, responding to a comment recommending she report the payments as fraud. “Last year, I had to cancel my card due to fraud, and it was a nightmare.”
Whether it was her responsibility to monitor her account or not, she’s taken accountability moving forward, urging others to adopt better habits for catching situations like this early, rather than $1,500 down the road.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories.