The world has become smaller and it won’t be wrong to say that it fits right in our palms. Yes, that is where you hold your cell phone a.k.a the world. You can do a lot of things with your phones. Phone banking is one of the things that you can do through your phone. Phone banking has made life simpler and you can transact, transfer funds, pay bills and many other things through mobile banking.
However, with the advancement in technology come higher threats. Banks and the government have put a lot of processes in place to make mobile phone banking extremely safe for the customers.
Read: What is Mobile Banking?
Habits are our second nature. And once we develop a set of habits, we don’t have to think about it. It just like brushing our teeth. When we were young, brushing our teeth was a task. It is not anymore. Similarly, while using phone banking or banking through apps, we need to develop a set of habits that will keep our bank records safe.
Here are some of the good habits that we should develop.
We use a host of apps in our day to day activities. Some of these include cab hailing services, food ordering sites and other online shopping sites. While using these services are a part and parcel of the modern world, one should never store your account information, such as the account number, debit and credit card PINs on the phone. Also, if you use your bank’s app, it is recommended that you don’t put your user name and password for automatic login. Saving details may lead to quicker transactions but it may be also have adverse effects if it falls in the wrong hands.
Who doesn’t like free wifi? Whether it is a café, airport and even while staying in a hotel, the first thing we look for whether there is free wifi. While using unsecured wifi for general purposes may not be harmful, you need to pay attention if you are using any banking services. Switch to your phone network or other password protected wifi networks, when you are doing a bank transaction.
Read: Why More Indians Prefer to do their Banking Through Their Mobile Phones
Email is one of the easiest ways for someone with evil intends to hack into your system and steal all your personal data. Hence, it is important not to open emails from suspicious looking emails. Sometimes, you may also land up with emails that have an enticing subject line. Stop! Don’t open it before verifying the sender. If you are still unable to recognise the sender, it may be a bait. Delete it and clear your deleted mail box.
Not just emails, messages can also contain viruses. Hence, don’t open messages from odd looking numbers.
The password and PIN is the gateway to mobile banking. The password and PIN are very sensitive and you shouldn’t divulge it with anyone. When you are installing your app and opening your app for the first time, then the app will ask you if you want to continue with your bank PIN. Once you choose the bank PIN, you will have to put the PIN every time, you open the app. Hence, don’t write your PIN in your note-keeping app.
One way to keep your PIN protected is to keep updating your PIN and password on a regular basis. You should also refrain from keeping common PINs centred around your birthday or the birthdays of your family members. In case of passwords, it is important to have complicated passwords containing title and small case and special characters.
Read: Top 10 Reasons to Do Banking on Your Smartphone
Mobile banking is a convenient way of banking. It saves us from the hassle of going to the bank branch for transactions or logging into internet banking every time you need to transfer funds to someone. Hence, in order to make sure that you have a smooth and hiccup-free journey with mobile or app banking, it is important to cultivate healthy habits pertaining to mobile banking.
