Managing Your Money Online

With the birth of the internet and smart phones and the society that we now live in where everyone is perpetually connected to the internet, there has developed a demand for internet banking. This means wherever you are in the world you can check your bank balance, pay your bills and generally make any alterations you may need to, via the internet with great ease. This is a brilliant tool that millions of people make use of everyday because it also allows for the exchange of money on a personal level as well as business.

However, as with anything there is always an opposite. For every positive there is a negative and in this instance that is that our bank accounts are also at a greater risk of being hacked. Online banking has given rise to the phenomena of ‘identity theft’ where either people or in some cases just computers, gain access to your account and use your money to make purchases. Hardly what you wanted was it?

Well the good news is that there are ways to prevent this from happening to you. Firstly, avoid using your mobile phone and other mobile devices to access your account. Regardless of how cautious you are, there will always be a risk of you having it stolen or you misplacing it and if this were to happen and all of your details are stored on the device, the thief or finder can use all of these details. Secondly, regularly changing your password and other log in information will make your account more secure and prevent computers that trawl through the internet looking for accounts to hack from finding yours.

Also be aware of both leaving your account logged in on your personal laptop and logging in on laptops that are used by several people. The first of these examples is fine largely but there is always a risk, it might sound extreme but how much worse would it be if your laptop was stolen and all of your bank details were available to the thief as well. The second example of logging in on public laptops means that anyone can access the laptop and all of the information on it so it is not worth running the risk of logging into your bank account.

For more information on how to manage your money online and keep yourself safe from hackers, visit www.ezine.co.uk.