Our Opinion
Corbin feels it’s safe as long as long as “one can take many precautions to make their account more secure.” He points to two-factor authentication, stronger passwords, not accessing banking apps and sites on public networks, and also taking advantage of hardware such as a Touch-ID sensor. He also notes that “if an account were to be compromised, banks are required by law to reimburse fraudulent charges.” Ayo agrees. He uses his phone to make transactions often with his bank’s mobile app. “It’s convenient and I use all the security features of the app, in addition to my own enhancements, to prevent unauthorized access.” He doesn’t believe he’d do it any other way. Phil is right in line with the others as well. He notes “in all the years I’ve been using mobile banking, PayPal mobile, and Internet banking of all sorts, I’ve never been robbed once.” He chalks his trust up to the “closed nature of Apple’s architecture and app ecosystem,” believing it breeds a little more trust, yet he can’t prove that it’s foolproof. He does believe if there is a breach of his account and that it’s obvious it wasn’t his fault, that he’ll be compensated.
In one word, Alex answers this question as “implicitly.” He notes that over the years he’s had “credit card numbers stolen, but it was always because merchants screwed up, never my bank.” Additionally, his bank doesn’t have physical branches, “so the mobile app represents the vast majority of my interaction with them.” Damien, though, isn’t so sure about it and says he is “still quite skeptical of doing any form of payment on a mobile,” as you know when it’s transmitting information over a WiFi network that it may be unsecured. He reports that he never feels “safe enough to install any of the banking or payment apps.” Simon recognizes both arguments. His bank “has many countermeasures in place to prevent unauthorized access.” For instance, it employs a password system where it asks for three specific characters from your password to prevent keylogging. Yet, the idea of using this system on public WiFi still makes him uneasy, and he wants to wait for a more secure connection before he accesses his bank. He’s never found himself “in a situation where I NEED to access my bank account while on the move,” so he’s more inclined to wait until he finds a more secure option later on. I fall right in line with the majority that trusts mobile banking. Like Alex, I, too, have had my credit card number stolen, and it was years ago when I was doing online shopping on my desktop. And the other time my info was stolen it was from filing taxes on TurboTax. So the fault lies with them, not my mobile. But now it’s different for me, as I only use mobile devices, my iPhone and iPad, so it’s not about convenience for me. It’s just my only option other than driving twenty minutes to my credit union. Regardless, I access money, moving it across accounts online, and also do mobile deposits, which I find extremely convenient, and also move money over to my account from PayPal.
Your Opinion
Where do you fall within this topic? Do you agree with the majority that there are so many safety measures that there are no concerns for you with mobile banking? Or does the whole idea of it still leave you feeling uneasy? Do you trust handling banking on your mobile? Join our conversation by adding your comments below.
