Mobile Banking: Keeping Your Accounts Safe

As shared in a previous blog post, Mercer Savings Bank’s online and mobile banking tools are customer favorites because of the many benefits they offer, including convenience and 24/7 banking. We use industry-standard security measures to keep your account information and money as safe as possible, but there are also steps customers can take to help protect their information.

In this day and age when cybercrime is an all-too-frequent occurrence, it is important to be smart about how you use your mobile devices and apps, including those used for mobile banking transactions. Follow these tips to help keep your account secure:

1. No auto-login. Even if it is an option on some apps, you should never allow a mobile banking app to automatically log you in to the bank’s system. If you do so, anyone could pick up your phone and access your account information. Even if you have a “lock code” on your phone, it may be something your friends and family members could easily guess. And, if your phone is stolen, thieves/hackers may find ways of getting past the lock screen; if your banking app automatically logs you in, they would have access to view and handle transactions.
2. Don’t save passwords. Some mobile devices and computers give users the option of storing passwords. Even if you are not automatically logged in on your device, you can log in without having to manually enter your password. While this is convenient for legitimate users, it makes potential fraudulent activity much easier because anyone who can get into your device will be able to get into your account information.
3. Use complex passwords. While it may be tempting to use an easy-to-remember password like “password,” “123456,” or “qwerty,” don’t do it. Your passwords should be difficult for others to guess. The best passwords use a combination of letters, numbers and special characters.
4. Don’t share or re-use passwords. Just as important as choosing a complex password: don’t share your passwords with others, and don’t use the same password for multiple sites or apps. Many people are tempted to use the same email address/username and password to get into more than one site. However, if you do that and if one of those sites is hacked and login information compromised, you have effectively given the hackers your login information for all sites where you use those login credentials.
5. Be conscious of your surroundings. When logging into your mobile banking app, think twice if someone could see what you are typing as you log in; letting someone else watch you enter your password is just like giving them your password.

To learn more about how Mercer Savings Bank keeps your account information safe, and to find out why customers in Celina, Fort Recovery and Greenville have trusted Mercer Savings Bank for more than 125 years, contact us today.