The benefits of digital banking include the ability to constantly monitor your accounts, transfer funds, and conduct banking transactions at your convenience. You can even deposit checks using your phone! Let’s examine these benefits and how to make the most of them.
With MyCardRules you can manage your Moody Bank credit and debit cards through your online banking portal or our mobile app, where you can set card controls and set up transaction alerts regarding balance levels and transfers. You can receive alerts through email or text messages. This way, you can stay on top of all activities involving your accounts, helping you protect them.
MyCardRules also lets you control how and where your cards are used. You could turn them on and off as needed, or place restrictions on them such as spending or withdrawal limits, the type of transaction, or the type of merchant that’s allowed to receive payments from your cards. Parents can also set their types of controls and monitoring for any cards they give to their kids.
With our mobilebanking app, you can manage your finances 24 seven. You can use the app to check your account balances, review your account activities and balances, pay bills, and transfer funds between accounts. You can even link any accounts you may have from other banks, for convenient managing and monitoring of all your funds. It even lets you find the nearest banking center and ATM.
You can also use it to stop payment on a check, pay your bills, temporarily disable a debit card, report lost or stolen debit cards, and reorder debit cards and checks. With our app, you can set up your transaction and spending alerts for every account.
With mobile banking deposits, you can use our app to deposit a check without ever having to visit our bank or an ATM. Just take a picture of the front and back of your check using the app.
Many of our customers use direct deposit for their paychecks and other income sources. Why not automate your regular payments as well? By setting up regular, automatic payments for things like your utility bills, mortgage, credit card, etc., you can see that your bills are paid on time so you can avoid late fees.
You can also set up automatic transfers between your accounts. For example, you might have your paycheck deposited into your checking account and use that for paying bills and withdrawing cash. At the same time, you have a portion of your income automatically transferred from a checking account into a savings account, as a way of automating your savings.
Financial advisors recommend having 3 to 6 months’ worth of living expenses set aside in an account that you could access at any time. If you don’t have an emergency fund, setting up automated transfers into a savings account could help you meet that goal. Many people discover that automatically transferring funds from their checking account to their savings account reduces the temptation to spend them.
Having a secure password is crucial to staying safe online, as is changing your password regularly. One of the best ways to ensure the digital security of your accounts is to set up two-factor authentication, also known as multifactor authentication. This way, any attempts to log on to your digital accounts would have to be approved by you. It may sound like an inconvenience, but many of our customers find that they quickly get the hang of it, and they prefer the extra layer of security that it provides. This way, even if someone guessed your password or managed to hack into your account, they would be blocked by the authentication requirement.
There are plenty of budgeting apps out there to help you keep track of your income and expenses—and as a way of reminding you to stay within your budget. With some of them, you must input your data yourself. With others, you can link them to your bank or credit card accounts. If you’ve never created a budget before, or rarely review yours, use this as a chance to remind yourself to stay within your goals for saving and investing.
When considering how to create a budget, you’ll need to account for all your income and expenses for the year, including your fixed costs such as your mortgage or rent, utilities, etc. You should also keep track of your past discretionary spending and choose realistic targets for the year.
Many people discover that when they first start using a budget app, they had no idea how much they were spending on certain things that may seem inconsequential at first but can add up over time. They discover that the morning coffee and doughnut they always grab, or a monthly streaming service subscription they signed up for but don’t use, are eating into the funds they could be saving or spending in other ways.
Some of the more popular budgeting apps include Mint, GoodBudget, Expensify, EveryDollar, and YNAB (You Need a Budget).
Doing just about anything online comes with a certain amount of risk, and that includes digital banking. We recommend that all our digital banking customers avoid using public Wi-Fi for any kind of banking activity. Cyber criminals have been known to prey on Wi-Fi users, intercepting their signals and capturing their logon credentials for later use.
If you do have to use public Wi-Fi, consider using it just for casual web browsing rather than shopping or banking online. You’ll be more secure if you’re using a cellular network, private network, or you may consider using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which creates an encrypted connection between your digital device and the Internet.
Pretty much everyone knows to avoid using “password 123” online, but you’d be surprised at how easy some people’s passwords are to guess or hack into. Try to avoid using things like your street address, the names of family members or pets, hobbies, favorite sports team, or anything else that would be easy for a scammer to find out. With Internet searches and social media use, scammers can create the kind of profile of someone that could make guessing their passwords a little too easy.
Any password should use some combination of lowercase and uppercase letters, as well as numbers and unusual symbols. For example,“password123” would be too easy to guess, but “Pa$$word123” is a little more complicated. You might try creating a password that’s based on an acronym or phrase that would be easy for you to remember, but hard for someone to guess.
If, like many people these days, you have multiple passwords to remember, you might try using a password manager. This way, you would have only one master password to remember, and the password manager could create all sorts of complicated passwords that you wouldn’t have to remember—because the password manager would do it for you. Adding multifactor authentication to your password manager can add an extra level of security for all your online accounts.
If you have any questions about digital banking, you might try our frequently asked questions about online banking page. You can also contact us or visit one of our convenient locations around Houston, in Austin or Galveston to speak to one of our associates. You can also check out our news page for the latest information on money management and banking.
