Tips for Staying Safe When Banking on Mobile

American Investment Planners LLC

500 North Broadway, Suite 260, Jericho, NY 11753

(516) 932-5130 / (866) 932-5130

Long gone are the days when cell phones were just used for calling and texting - now, they're used for social media, as a GPS, for travel, for music, and so much more! With apps available for nearly everything you can imagine, something else many people use their mobile phones for is online banking.

Now, although developers work to make their apps secure, anyone who uses mobile technology for the purpose of making financial transactions or monitoring financial accounts still needs to be cautious of what they're doing and when/where they're doing it. This, of course, is for the purpose of protecting oneself from identity theft. Here are a few things to remember:

1. Avoid public Wi-Fi. If you're going to be logging into an app that stores your personal financial information, make sure you're on a secure network. Using public Wi-Fi in places such as hotels and coffee shops puts your information at greater risk of being intercepted.
2. Use your bank's app. Rather than log into your bank's website via your mobile browser, download the app that they've developed for mobile banking purposes. Sources say that using the app can protect your financial data since mobile browsers tend to be less secure.
3. Turn off automatic logins. Storing passwords on your mobile applications makes things easier for you, yes, but it also makes it easier for people to access your information if your phone is ever lost or stolen. That said, always make sure that your settings are set to require a password when opening up mobile banking applications (and all other apps, for that matter).

Should you find that you take all of the right steps and your information still winds up in the wrong hands, here are some immediate actions you should take.

American Investment Planners LLC is an independent financial planning firm that offers services such as retirement planning, estate planning, portfolio and asset management, and taxes and accounting. To learn more, please call (516) 932-5130 or email info@americaninvestmentplanners.com.