10 Smart Ways to Spring-Clean Your Finances and Protect Yourself From Fraud in 2026

Ah, spring time. Now is a good time to review where you have your finance/banking information saved. Think about all those online shopping apps and subscriptions you’ve signed up for.
Safe-guarding and using the most secure options for paying your commitments is important for your financial health, not to mention your mental health as well. When a hacker acquires access to your debit card number or any other personal information, stress is an understatement.
We encourage you to read through this checklist and implement anything that you may not already have in place.

• Online Bill Pay
• Alerts
• Manage My Cards
• Mobile Wallet
• E-Statements
• Close Dormant Accounts / Subscriptions
• Password Managers / Password Vaults
• Establish Multi-Factor Identification
• Crunch the Numbers
• Device Updates

Half of this checklist can be established through your financial institution’s online banking platform and/or mobile app., a great convenience for you!

Why Online Bill Pay is safer and more convenient than mailing checks

Paying your bills through a secure online bill-pay system is typically more secure than mailing paper checks. With online bill pay you decide when your money leaves your account. You are no longer tied to the post office’s delivery timeline. No more past due fees! No more lost checks! Click the subhead link ‘Online Bill Pay’ for more information.

Financial Alerts you should enable to prevent fraud and overspending

Account alerts, otherwise known as account notifications, provide you with important information relating to your credit cards, debit cards, and bank accounts. As an example: 
If your account balance dips below a level you deemed appropriate, a Low Balance Alert will be sent to you. This alert helps ensure you have sufficient funds in your account to prevent overdrafts or to maintain balances to qualify for rewards.
Other alerts you can establish for your benefit:

• Direct Deposit Alert. This advises you when funds have been deposited into your account, so now you know you can cover whatever expenses you have coming up.
• The Big Purchase Alert and any unusual purchases (typically called an Unusual Activity Alert) helps identify fraudulent activity. If you truly didn’t initiate these purchases, you can turn off or stop any further access to your account, saving you a lot of time and money.
• Related to above is a Transfers Alert. When large incoming or outgoing transfers post to your account, you’ll know about it.
• Most banks have a limit for how much you can withdraw each day from an ATM. The ATM/Debit Card Alert helps ensure your transactions and changes are legitimate.
• Get alerts when deposits, checks, or withdrawals post to your account when you activate Transactions. This may get a little annoying, but it is gratifying to know if your transaction was successfully received and processed.
• Another notification that potentially identifies fraudulent behavior is the Profile Change or Security Alert. It lets you know when someone changes your information or is trying to get access to your online banking accounts. 

Alerts may be referred to by different names at different financial institutions, but they are relatively the same. Do yourself a favor; turn on all of the notifications related to your financial accounts and cards. They can help save you money, avoid possible fraud, and keep you informed of your spending. 

Prevail Bank also offers Loan Alerts to its business, commercial, and home loan customers. Loan alerts will advise you when a payment is due, has been paid, or when any loan activity has occurred. It also keeps you appraised of how close you are to your credit limit.
Sidenote:  At Prevail Bank you can receive alerts even if you aren’t enrolled in digital banking. You would just need to speak to a Prevail Bank Customer Service Representative, 800-205-0914, to setup the alerts for your accounts.

How card-management apps protect you from fraud and track spending

If your financial institution offers a card-management app, be sure to explore its features. There are also third-party card-management apps available if you prefer alternatives. Familiarize yourself with the options, conveniences, and security features offered and pick one.
With a Manage My Card app, you’ll know when, where, and how your cards are used. Most will allow you to turn off a misplaced card with just a touch, spot fraud almost instantly, limit your transactions by merchant type, transaction type, and monitor or establish spending limits.  You can also restrict a card’s usage to a designated region, which means if someone tries to make a purchase outside your selected region, it will either be denied or an alert is sent to you. Card management apps should be able to provide you with transactional summaries and detail, a visual breakdown of your spending, the ability to turn cards on and off, and to report a lost card with a touch of a button. Alerts to ensure on-time payments are always a plus too.
The app you choose should be free with the ability to upload many different cards.
Bonus:  Through Prevail Bank’s Mobile Banking app, account alerts AND manage my cards functionalities are available. Did you catch that? Only ONE app needs to be downloaded, a true convenience.

What is Mobile Wallet and why is it more secure than using your card?

A Mobile Wallet is a mobile phone app that stores your credit and debit card payment information. Once your cards are uploaded, you have the ability to pay for purchases at participating merchants by holding your phone (the mobile wallet) over the payment device instead of carrying and physically pulling out the desired plastic card from your wallet. Mobile Wallets are extremely secure because your smart phone uses tokenization —a dynamic, one-time-use encrypted code — so your actual card number is never shared. 
Depending on the Mobile Wallet app you choose (many financial institutions offer them), your identification cards, event tickets, boarding passes, and many other items could be stored too.
As it relates to best practices when choosing and using a Mobile Wallet:

• Ensure the app uses biometrics (fingerprint/face ID) and complex, unique passcodes rather than simple PINs for app access.
• Avoid using them on public wi-fi; use cellular data instead to prevent data interception.
• Consider using RFID-blocking cases for your phone.
• And push (turn on) notifications for every transaction to instantly detect fraudulent charges.

A Mobile Wallet app is independent from a Manage My Cards app. The Mobile Wallet app provides the ability to make secure purchases. The Manage My Cards app tracks and helps manage your spending.
For customer convenience, Mobile Wallet functionality is available through Prevail Bank’s Mobile Banking app too!

Why switching to eStatements improves your security and organization

The purpose of an electronic statement is two-fold. It provides you with 1) On-demand access 24/7 of your financial statements for downloading or printing. And 2) They provide an additional level of security (protection from identity theft) because access is initially restricted to your secure online banking portal, reducing the risk of mail theft.
An eStatement contains the same information that a paper financial account statement does; most financial institutions offer them free of charge. Sign-up today with your financial institution if you haven’t already.

Why you should close dormant accounts — And how to find them

Inactive accounts can be risky because they store your personal information, payment details, and login credentials on company servers. When you stop using a service but keep your account open (you didn’t formally close or delete it), your information stays available for potential hackers. Data retention policies vary widely. Some companies delete old data quickly, while others unfortunately, keep it indefinitely, increasing your exposure to hackers and scammers.
Common Types of Dormant Accounts include:  Old Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. One-time shopping accounts, subscription services, streaming services, memberships, and inactive banking or payment accounts.
Make or acquire a list of all your online accounts and delete/officially close those accounts you aren’t using. Don’t just leave them dormant. If you have accounts that you want to keep, but don’t use often, change their passwords so they’re strong; enable two-factor authentication, and set-up alerts as a monitoring mechanism.

How do you find your old online accounts?

There’s no tool that lists every account everywhere (for privacy reasons), but you can:

1. Search your email for common account-creation keywords. Your email inbox is the best “paper trail” of everywhere you’ve ever signed up.  Search for:  “welcome”, “verify”, “confirm email”, “account”, “subscription”.
2. Check your Password Manager. They often store a complete list of saved logins.
3. Check your browser’s saved logins. They can reveal some very old accounts you forgot existed.
   1. Chrome:  Settings à Autofill à Password Manager
   2. Firefox:   Settings à Privacy à Logins & Passwords
   3. Edge:  Settings à Profiles à Passwords
4. Data broker removal tools will help find accounts tied to your name. (DeleteMe, Kanary, Optery). They don’t find accounts directly, but identify services with your personal information, which often means --- You have an account or profile here.
5. Check subscription management tools: Apple subscriptions, Google Play subscriptions, PayPal pre-approved payments, Amazon subscriptions.
6. Review OAuth or Open Authorization connections, IE: “Sign in with Google/Facebook/Apple”. If you use “Sign in with ….” Buttons, you can see all connected accounts.
   1. Google:     https://myaccount.google.com/permissions
   2. Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=applications
   3. Apple:   https://appleid.apple.com à Apps using Apple ID

Why a Password Manager is essential for modern financial security

Password managers (or vaults) securely store  and encrypt all your logins behind one master password. Popular options include Bitwarden, LastPass, 1Password, Dashlane, KeePass. 
They come in two types:

1. Cloud-based/Online – (Bitwarden, Dashlane, 1Password) This type of vault is synced across devices and are convenient if you lose or replace hardware. However, you must trust a third-party to protect their servers.
2. Local/Offline – (KeePass) This vault never leaves your device, offering maximum control and privacy, but YOU are responsible for backups and handling manual syncing between devices. 

Neither option is universally “better”. Choice is based on convenience or full control. Do a little research, check reviews, and choose one.
What’s not recommended is storing passwords in your web browsers; dedicated password managers offer stronger security controls.
And remember to make sure every account has unique login credentials.

How multi-factor authentication (MFA) protects your financial accounts

Turning on multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever possible can stop hackers even if they get your password. Logging in with Facebook or Google might seem convenient, but it creates a single gateway to multiple accounts.
For some platforms, MFA settings may reset when you get a new device, reinstall an app, or change security settings —So review them regularly. Be diligent. If this option (MFA) is offered, take it!

When does credit card debt consolidation make sense?

Many people struggle with credit card debt at one point or another, and the higher your balances get, the harder it can be to pay them off, especially when you consider compounding interest.
Debt consolidation makes the most sense when:

1. Your new total payment is less than your current total payment.
2. You can acquire an interest rate that’s lower than the rates you’re paying now. 
3. The total interest paid over the life of your debt is now less.
4. You have multiple monthly debt payments.

What is a balance transfer credit card?

Rolling your credit card debts onto a balance transfer credit card (also called credit card refinancing) typically requires good credit – often around 690 or higher – though some issuers may approve lower scores depending on other factors. 
The primary benefits of a good balance transfer credit card are: 

1. It doesn’t charge interest for a certain length of time (an introductory period), typically 15 to 21 months.  And, 
2. The good ones don’t charge an annual fee.

But you may expect (the likelihood is high), a one-time balance transfer fee of 3%-5% of the total amount transferred.
The primary goal of utilizing a balance transfer credit card is to pay down your balance as much as possible (preferably to zero) before the 0% introductory period is over.  After the introductory period, any remaining balance (or any additional balances added to the card) will likely incur double-digit interest. — We want to avoid double-digit interest; it adds up! (This is why paying off your credit cards every month is considered a best practice.)  
Most people, when they consolidate, want to reduce or get out of debt. If this is your circumstance, it is critical that you do NOT refill those credit cards that were just transferred to a balance transfer credit card. Turn them off!
To help you decide if consolidation is right for you, consider NerdWallet’s Debt Consolidation Calculator.  Or, if you are a Prevail Bank customer, use Credit Sense (a free service offered to all ) or a Prevail Bank banker to help you crunch the numbers and identify if credit card debt consolidation is an option for you to consider.
Why updating your devices is critical for your financial cybersecurity
Your smartphones, tablets, laptops, and computers need regular attention too. Start with a quick cleanup: remove unused apps, clear old downloads, archive or delete files you no longer need, and empty the recycle bin.
Next, make sure your operating system, antivirus, and security tools are fully updated and set to auto-update. Out-of-date software is one of the easiest ways for attackers to get in.
Finally, ensure every device has its own unique password. A Password manager can help you keep everything organized and secure.

In Conclusion:

Spring is considered the season of renewal. It inspires us to purge, cleanse, and organize. For many it provides an emotional benefit, the sense of control. Extend your spring cleaning beyond your closets, home, and garage. Your financial wellbeing is important too.
 

PREVAIL BANK offers 1:1 assistance when it comes to personal or business banking needs.

Security is also a high priority. We follow, in strict accordance, the guidelines established by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Our internal Information Technology controls are subject to rigorous annual audits conducted by an independent third-party firm.  And, we maintain a robust third-party risk management framework and engage in ongoing evaluations of cybersecurity threats. We offer multi-factor authentication to our customers, and implemented advanced security controls, including Login Defenses that block access from known threat actor countries, behavior analytics in-session risk analysis that accelerates responses to security threats, and we use real time fraud monitoring and scoring on debit card transactions to limit fraud. 
 
If you are considering a financial institution change, consider the convenience, ease, and security that Prevail Bank offers. Use ClickSWITCH to switch today; it’s fast and secure.

Prevail Bank is FDIC Insured