Bank offers suggestions about personal finances during crisis

Local officers of Wells Fargo Bank have offered tips to home-bound consumers to deal with personal banking during the COVID-19 crisis. The suggestions ease the difficulties that people are experiencing doing normal banking activities with bank lobbies, and in some cases, drive-up facilities closed due to social distancing guidelines issued by governments. 

The bank offers these tips:

• Use your bank’s mobile app to transfer money between your own accounts or send money to friends and family, pay bills, monitor spending and deposit checks using mobile deposit,  a feature that can be used to deposit U.S. government economic impact payments for COVID 19 relief.

• Set up text or email alerts to track spending and account balances and help guard against coronavirus-related and other phishing and smishing scams.

• Look out for scams such as requests to “sign up” to receive your stimulus check or to “verify” your filing information or payment details through a phone call or email. The IRS will not make phone calls, contact you via social media, send text messages or send emails to confirm personal or account details.  If you receive a suspicious request for your information, do not respond, click on links or open attachments.

• Put debit and credit cards into your phone’s digital wallet and use your phone to pay, minimizing the touching of surfaces. Consumer debit and credit card customers with contactless cards also can use the “tap to pay” feature to eliminate the need to insert or swipe cards.

• Keep track of all recurring payments associated with debit and credit cards. Identify and make plans to cancel any unneeded services or subscriptions to free up cash for emergencies.

• Apply online for personal loans, buy or refinance a home online and track the loan’s progress after application, sign disclosures and upload documents and complete other tasks.