by Hope
As I have been tracking the money I spend for my personal goal of changing my relationship with money, I decided to begin using cash only for as much as possible. It just hurts more, and really limits what I can spend. I know this is age old money advice, but as you well know…I have to learn things the hard way.
The exceptions are gas and regular monthly bills (paid from my checking account.) My question is how, do you keep your account information safe? I’ve had my checking account cleared out more than a couple of times. And have no idea what my security failure was.
Securing Your Banking Information
My debit card is never outside of my possession. I don’t use it online. What can I do? What tips and tricks do you have to keep your liquid cash safe when you move to a cash based money plan?
With the money tracking I am doing, I withdrawal $100 at a time. I am using a Google sheet on my phone to track every penny in and out and setting categories as I have time. It’s definitely a process to get in the habit. But even just tracking has opened my eyes a bit.
My Next Plan
I will get into this more when I have steady income again, but this experience has opened my eyes to how important it really is to get my single credit card down to a $0 balance. While I have steady income, it’s worked to pay it off and kind of use it as a revolving line of credit. When I don’t, this does not work so well. So my next plan…pay off the credit card in full and keep it that way! But first a job…
Hope is a resourceful, solutions-driven online business manager with over two decades of experience helping clients streamline operations, manage projects, and grow their businesses through digital marketing and technology.
But life has a way of rewriting your plans.
A year ago, Hope made the decision to move in with her aging parents full time – a season she wouldn’t trade, even as it came with its own financial and emotional weight. Earlier this year, she lost her mother, and is now walking the tender, disorienting path of grief while learning what “forward” looks like from here.
Hope came to the Blogging Away Debt community in 2015 as a single mom raising five foster and adoptive children. She’s written through job changes, financial setbacks, and the bittersweet transition to an empty nest. Her kids are finding their footing in the world now – and so is she.
Rooted in faith and fueled by the same perseverance she’s brought to every hard season, Hope is ready to face her finances with fresh eyes and an honest pen. She believes that clarity, courage, and community can change the trajectory of anyone’s story including her own.
She lives in Austin, TX with her dad, loves adventures with her dog Addie, and is figuring out, one step at a time, what this next chapter is meant to be.
How is your account getting cleared out? Do you mean by fraudulent activity?
If so, when was the last time you changed your password and PIN? Do you give them to the kids? Are they random or things that are easily guessed? When was the last time you got your card number changed?
Apart from that, never let your card out of your sight, eg when paying do not let shop assistants take it and use it under the counter or in a back room etc.
To protect my money, I keep only a little in my checking and move my paycheck into a savings account. When I need to pay a bill, I transfer only what I need for that back into the checking. I use a saving account at the same institution so that the transfers are immediate, instead of a separate online bank which could take days. It is important that the savings account you use for this purpose is NOT linked to the checking account for overdraft protection, otherwise it could get drained too. I feel at least then, if my checking account is compromised, they won’t get everything.
For online banking and paying of bills, I enter the bill information into MY bank’s online bill pay feature. They send the money to the utility, creditor, etc. The bank holds all the data, I do not put my bank information into other websites to pay their bill through their site. Everything goes through my bank.
I know several people who have lost money out of their bank accounts because of having used their debit cards at gas pump. There had been an external reader added on, and someone got their information that way. So, for this one thing, I do use a credit card and pay it off each month.