It seems like the best way to protect your checking account is to not do any online banking, right? Wrong. That’s the most financially risky thing you can do. Angela found out why.
Angela’s Story
Angela put her checkbook in her purse and went to the grocery store. She had heard about “card skimmers,” that can steal the information from the magnetic stripe on credit cards and debit cards, so she didn’t use payment cards if she could avoid it. Instead, she wrote checks. Sometimes she got irritated looks for holding up the line while she wrote a check, but she didn’t mind. “Better to be safe than sorry,” she thought.
Also, Angela knew that people sometimes had their money stolen by identity theft. She knew that people who did online banking sometimes had their entire checking account emptied in a matter of seconds, and she didn’t want that to happen to her. So, she didn’t create an online account. After all, how could a criminal log into her account if she didn’t have one? So when she needed to do any banking, she just went to the bank. They had an ATM, and she used that most of the time. And most days she got off work before the drive-through teller’s window was closed. Perfectly convenient, and perfectly safe. Or so she thought.