Is my money safe in the bank?
Do you know how banks work to keep your money safe?
Is it something you ever think about? Has it been on your mind recently?
It has definitely been on my mind a great deal more since lockdown began, the world no longer seems the safe and secure place it used to be and I worry very much no about things that I used to take for granted, like seeing my family, my kids being in school.
I’ve talked to so many people over the last month about money worries, whether this be that they are concerned for their business, or their job or indeed on several occasion s whether banks are still a safe place to leave our money.
There has been a lot of economic uncertainties during this pandemic and in response, HSBC has created an infographic called “Is my money safe?“. In this piece, they explain how banks keep your money safe while carrying out online transactions, as well as providing some useful tips to protect yourself against fraud.
The key takeaway that should really reassure you is this :
The FSCS guarantees your money up to £85,000 per person, per institution. Joint accounts have protection up to £170,000.
You can find out if your bank or building society is covered by checking the Financial Services Register
How can I keep my money safe?
In terms of doing your bit to keep your money safe in the bank, there is actually a great deal you can do – just take a look at the infographic above, it is packed with useful information.
I recently opened an email from what I thought was my bank only to find an attachment to download. Just before I opened the attachment I got distracted by one of my kids. When I got back to it I gave the email a bit more attention and realised the email address the post had been sent form looked very dodgy and unbank like and actually is I had opened the attachment who knows what I might have done to my computer.
You have to be so careful.
Someone got into my Paypal account once and sent fishing gear from Canada to the USSR. It was rather bizarre. Luckily my bank spotted the unusual transaction and called me up and I was able to sort it with PayPal but who knows how much could have gone before I realised.
And OH MY GOODNESS once my daughter (who was 9 at the time) gave my bank password to her classmate so he could go on Moshi Monsters game they were playing online and help modify her monster. To be fair she did not know it was my bank password but at that time I rather naively used the same password for everything.
Oops.
Thank goodness she told me. I had strong words about not sharing passwords AND I never used my bank passwords for everything else again.
Taking responsibility
Whilst the banks have protection in place for our money, it is really important that we also put protection in place through both our habits and our behaviours.
How safe do you keep your money?
Is my money safe in the bank? How Banks Work is a collaborative post
