Protect and Manage Your Bank Accounts Using Free Email and Text Message Alerts

Online banking is a feature that is both an efficient and convenient way for organizations to manage their accounts. On the flipside it has increased the frequency of fraudulent activity, and the complexity of schemes are increasing, further subjecting organizations to risk.

Banks offer a variety of account services that aim to reduce fraudulent activity and to alert organizations if their accounts have been compromised. Positive pay and automated clearing house (ACH) blocks are just two examples of products banks offer for a fee. While services like these would be ideal to have, the fees can be an added expense that many organizations are not willing or able to pay.

Free online banking alerts can be an alternative for organizations in this situation. Depending on the financial institution, many offer free banking alerts that allow organizations to stay up to date with what is going on with their accounts, anytime, anywhere. These alerts can be a tremendous help by providing instant updates delivered directly to the fingertips of a user by sending an email or text message to a mobile device.

A variety of different types of free banking alerts are available. Standard account alerts and custom alerts can be set up based on an organization’s needs and business environment. Alerts are fairly easily to set up through a user’s online banking account. Several examples of banking alerts that are currently being offered depending on the financial institution are listed below.

Automatic Alerts: Receive notification when updates are made to an account such as mailing address and e-mail address changes. Notification when an account has been added, and when the online banking user ID or password has been changed. Security alerts can also notify if there has been multiple unsuccessful log-in attempts to an account. Most importantly this option can let an organization know right away if their account has experienced irregular activity.

Balance Alerts: Receive notification when balances are approaching a threshold the user has set up, serving as a cash management tool, time saver, and indication that the account may have been compromised.

Transaction Alerts: Receive notification when transactions are made such as deposits, withdrawals, and transfers. This option can even alert an organization if transactions have been made outside the United States, which would be a big red flag to organizations not normally doing international transactions.

Help Prevent Fees Alerts: Notifications can help avoid late and overdraft fees by sending credit card payment alerts, bill pay alerts, mortgage alerts, and insufficient funds alerts.

Other Alerts: Receive a daily balance summary, a notification when a payment has been completed, a transfer has been processed, or there was a problem with a payment or transfer. Online banking messages from a financial institution’s customer service can also be sent this way.

Organizations are encouraged to discuss banking alert options with their financial institution before signing up. This relatively new way of managing bank accounts can save money, provide a peace of mind, and help free up valuable time to focus on the next business challenge.