We live in an increasingly digital world, and this offers a wide variety of opportunities for scammers and cybercriminals to steal your money and your identity. It’s important to take as many preventative measures as possible to prevent personal and/or financial fraud that can negatively affect your credit health, and our team at Polam is here to guide you through the best steps to keep you safe.
Here are a few financial wellness tips regarding fraud protection, and how they can help you on a day-to-day basis:
Keep an eye on your account information on a regular basis. When you monitor your debit and credit card transactions, credit reports, and account balances, you’re doing the most basic upkeep when it comes to your financial health – and it’s easy to do when you bank with Polam. You can view all of your accounts online through our website’s online banking portal, and our mobile banking app is also available to use 24/7, where you can view all transactions in real-time. Credit reporting sites such as Experian and Credit Karma also give you free access to your credit scores and how they’re calculated.
Take safety precautions while banking online. Even though it’s become much easier to manage your finances through a computer or mobile device, you still need to keep your accounts and information as secure as possible. There are a number of easy ways you can ensure the safety of your accounts, including setting up complex usernames and passwords that are hard to guess; logging out of banking apps when you’re finished with them; downloading regular system updates to your banking apps for optimal security; enabling fingerprint or face ID to log into secured apps; and using two-factor authentication when it’s available.
Keep your personal information up to date. This might seem like a no-brainer, but it often gets overlooked. If you’ve moved addresses, changed your phone number, changed your name after getting married, or updated your email address, you should be updating this information with us at Polam or with any other lenders you’re working with. Not only can this keep your personal information from getting into the wrong hands, but it also helps us notify you if there are any concerns with your accounts.