Archive for the ‘Firewall’ tag
Using An Online Bank Account Firewall
I’m pretty comfortable with banking online, linking my accounts together, and doing what would have been considered “crazy” only a few short years ago. The interconnectedness of my online services is so widespread that my bank accounts often see only one or two degrees of separation from one another. This level of comfort helps my financials be more fluid but it does introduce a certain level of risk.
Several years ago, I remember reading reports that Paypal was freezing accounts and withdrawing funds directly from bank accounts in fraud investigations. It was something that spurred me to build what I call an online bank account firewall.
A regular firewall in a home is a flame retardant material that separates two connected homes. In the event of a fire in one home, the firewall would prevent the fire from spreading to the other. They’re standard in rowhomes, townhomes, and duplexes these days. The computer version of the firewall is similar, it keeps the bad stuff out. The financial firewall seeks to achieve the same goal.
If there are some untrusted or somewhat risky accounts out there, simply link them to an empty bank account at ING Direct. I chose them because opening a second account there was trivial and, three years ago, they had the best rates in the high yield savings account world. All you do is create an account and link Paypal to that account.
As funds are transferred into the firewall account, move them to another account immediately. If you need to get funds to PayPal, transfer them into the firewall account first, then initiate the transfer. The account has a $0 balance at all times and so you run no risk of having your funds withdrawn without your knowledge!