Protect Your Account During Holiday Shopping
Protect your money...
With the holiday season now in full swing, we wanted to give you a few pointers to help keep your account safe and secure. During this time of year, you may find yourself surrounded by people who would like nothing more than to go shopping – with your hard-earned money.
Read those emails – closely!
Scammers find the holidays an easy time to target people and that means you have to be more vigilant. Never give out your personal information online unless you initiated the contact. An email that looks like it’s from a reputable retailer (think Amazon, Best Buy or Costco) but asks you to go to another site and enter in your personal information is likely a scam. Check the email address and domain names (think Amazon.com) of any site where you’re shopping and make sure they match the name of the retailer you believe you are shopping with. Also, keep an eye on the package shipment notifications arriving in your email. If you haven’t ordered anything or don’t recognize the name of the company that shipped the item, avoid clicking on the link - you may end up giving yourself malware and that’s a gift no one wants!
Protect your account – and your cards!
“I’ve lost my debit card.” A lost debit card or credit card can be daunting, but let us know as quickly as possible if you believe your card is no longer in your possession. We can close down your FedChoice card to ensure that no one else has access to your funds and a new card can be on its way to you with one simple phone call!
If you’ve misplaced your debit card, it’s a good idea to check and see if there are any transactions you’re unaware of that might be pending against your account. When you check your account online, you’ll see two columns of information - “Balance” and “Available”. The amount shown in the “Balance” section will usually be higher than the amounts shown in the “Available” section. This difference could be due to check holds, debit card charges that have not yet been deducted from your account and/or required minimum amounts to keep your account in good standing (i.e. $50.00 in your Main Share Savings Account). Simply click on the account you wish to review and then near the account name, at the top of the screen, you’ll see “Account Holds” with a dollar amount to the right. Click on the dollar amount and you can see the pending transactions that have yet to post to your account. If there are transactions you don’t recognize, let us know as soon as possible!
Keep your funds where they belong – with you!
Review your “Available” balance on an ongoing basis to help keep holiday spending under control. Want to review on the go? Check out our mobile banking app – so if you find you’re running low on funds, you can simply transfer funds (and avoid Courtesy Pay or Non-Sufficient Funds fees)! Moving money from a savings account into your checking account is quick and easy but remember you’re limited by Federal law to six transfers per month. Click here for more tips on avoiding overdraft fees all year long!
By keeping vigilant this holiday season, you can keep your money where it belongs – with you!
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