In addition to the range of financial services and products offered, security is one of the top criteria that people consider upon choosing a bank. This is because neither of us would want to open an account at a bank where we always have to be nervous about our account details or Money being stolen.
How can one determine if their chosen bank is safe and secure? Find out the main elements that you should see if your chosen bank has in the article below.
Does your bank allow customers to lock and unlock their cards or accounts online?
A bank with a high degree of safety and security would let their customers be more proactive in locking/unlocking their cards and accounts to help them react quịcly when they find out that their account details or account balance is being hacked. Once the account details are being hacked, money in the accounts can be stolen even before customers can contact the bank to get their accounts and cards locked.
Does your bank allow customers to verify their transactions with iOTP?
OTP (One Time Password) is a common type of password that is valid for only one use to verify transactions made from one’s bank account. OTPs are normally sent through text messages to verify money transfer requests. Although OTPs are usually disabled after a short amount of time, there is still a high possibility of OTPs being stolen by hackers. This can directly affect your personal information, account and other “assets” that you have in your bank account.
A safe and secure bank should provide iOTP as an upgraded version of OTP to let customers verify their transactions without having to get their OTP via text messages. In comparison with the usual OTP, iOTP is just a simple upgrade but can bring more safety to one’s bank account and convenience to their daily life.
Does your bank app allow automatic log out?
To enhance safety and security, customers should log out from their bank accounts after every access. However, a large population of people often forget about this and underestimate the effects that can come out of this.
Hence, a safe and secure bank should help their customers to avoid any effect that can come out of forgetting to log out of their bank account. In particular, one’s bank account should be able to be automatically logged out after a certain amount of time it is not being used. If users wish to log in to their account again after not logging out properly, they should be required to enter a security code or their username & password again.
Does your bank allow you to receive your account balance notifications via email?
One of the most common methods used to notify one’s account balance is SMS text messages. However, to use SMS Banking, people usually need to pay a certain amount of monthly fee. This method is also inconvenient to use in cases of weak signals or when people are travelling overseas.
Therefore, a safe and secure bank should allow customers to receive their account balance notifications via their registered email addresses. In cases when the customers are travelling abroad or have bad signals, this notification method would help to be more proactive in reacting to unusual transactions. Additionally, receiving account balance notifications brings some other benefits to users, such as:
– Able to manage their transaction history anytime and anywhere
– Able to receive account balance notifications through multiple means of communication
– Do not have to depend on mobile network and signals
Does your bank issue cards with secure EMV chip?
EMV chip is the global standard for card payments. Cards with EMV chip are chip-based payment cards with enhanced safety features that are designed to prevent fraudulent practices such as card skimming and cloning. EMV chip contains data on microchips instead of magnetic lines. As EMV chip generates fresh user data every time a transaction is being made, this makes it impossible for fraudsters to copy people’s original data from their cards. This is why a safe and secure bank should issue cards with EMV chips as the functions of EMV chips help to create a strong layer of protection for customers’ cards and account details.
Above are some elements that a safe and secure bank should have to help their customers bank with an absolute peace of mind. Don’t forget to consider carefully the above elements to choose the right bank for yourself.
