How safe is your financial information on your smartphone or tablet? Whether you're paying bills, checking balances, making purchases, or transferring money, you need to take special caution to avoid financial disaster when using your handheld device.
It's estimated that credit card losses alone totaled more than $16 billion world-wide, and could easily double in the next five years. That's why you're seeing banks introduce new chip cards, which are more fraud resistant. And it's why your bank or card issuer may be sending you text messages, questioning unusual transactions.
Even though you are guaranteed against loss from fraudulent use of your cards, we all pay the price! And there's no price to put on the hassle of getting a new card, and changing all those automatic payments to your new card number.
Alex Matjanec, co-founder of MyBankTracker.com, a site with more than 1.5 million monthly users, advises the generation that handles most of its finances on its phones to be pro-active in protecting financial information. Here are five steps you should take:
1.Use the financial institution's mobile app. Don't simply use your browser - Safari or Chrome or other browser - to access your bank's website. Instead be sure to download the bank or credit card company or brokerage firm app. It will come empowered with extra degree of security for your inquiries and transactions.
2.Make sure your smartphone or tablet is secure. Always keep your instrument password-protected, even though this takes an extra few seconds to get you into your phone. Even better than using a numerical password is to use the "fingerprint" technology that is available on most new smartphones. If your phone is not protected, a thief can easily access your browser history, getting a head start on identity theft.
3.Never use public WiFi to access your account! It is okay to access your financial institution from your secured home WiFi access - but don't do it when you're sitting in a coffee shop using their WiFi. Anyone nearby can gain access to all your information and password. It's like opening the door to the vault. If you are near public WiFi, simply turn the WiFi off temporarily and use your secure cellular data to access your account, or for that matter, to keep email messages truly private.
4.Set up two-factor authentication. You've probably received a text from your bank or card issuer if you attempt to access your data from a new computer or phone. They will not that they "don't recognize" the phone, and send you a text or email (whichever you have chosen) with a temporary "one-time" passcode that you must copy and insert into the long-in page.
What most people don't know is that they can work with their financial institution to require this type of authentication for each financial institution, every time you use the app. You'll find instructions for setting it up in the "settings" section of the app. Or call your bank and ask them to make it a requirement. Similarly, you can set up "notifications" in your app - so you will be texted whenever a transaction exceeds a certain amount, or when two withdrawals are made in one day, for example.
5.Never pre-populate your user name or password in an app. Sure it saves time if you don't have to type in your user-name on commonly used apps, but don't do it for financial apps. And surely don't let the app "remember" your password for your bank or credit card account. That's just asking for trouble if you lose your phone.
It's fine to rely on the security of merchants and financial institutions. They spend billions on security each year. But don't let all that security go to waste by making a simple mistake on your end, and opening the door to financial fraud and identity theft. It's worth taking the time to do it right. And that's The Savage Truth.