Main Street Finance

3 Ways to Keep Your Financial Information Safe and Secure

By Kat

When we constantly hear stories about smartphones and national databases being hacked, it’s easy to fear for our personal information. In fact, it’s only natural that you might make some changes when it comes to your online behavior or other sensitive networks – so about your financial information?

An increasing number of banks have shifted their services to an online platform. This is great for convenience but brings up a whole new host of cloud security issues. Read on for three actionable tips to protect your money in an era of heightened risk.

Shred your bills

Some might say this is an unnecessary precaution, but these days it’s better to be safe than sorry! Especially if you live in an urban area, it’s smart to shred your bills before disposing of them so no one can access a monthly bank statement or credit card number. These documents can act as a trail towards all your financial accounts and put you at risk for stolen credit cards or even a stolen identity.

Never email anyone your bank account number

Again, this may seem like common sense but it’s all too common for people to email sensitive information. It’s much more difficult for personal financial information to be intercepted if you exchange details directly at your bank or speak with an employee of your financial institution over the phone. Keep all important personal information off the internet where hackers can lurk and access your account numbers.

Change your passwords frequently

At the end of the day, most of us will inevitable do some banking or financial transactions through our smartphones or mobile devices. This is great for streamlining the process and saving time for other tasks. Make sure you change all your passwords frequently (once every six months is best) and choose complicated alphanumeric combinations to make your accounts difficult to access without permission. Lastpass is a great service that will scramble your passwords and choose unique combinations for each of your separate accounts.

You don’t need intricate encryption methods to keep your financial information secure, you just need to be aware, check your accounts regularly, and use common sense. Don’t conduct significant financial transactions on your smartphone using the spotty public WiFi at the coffee shop down the street. If you avoid situations like these and take the above advice into consideration, your financial information should be adequately protected under most circumstances.

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