Financial apps on your phone

Albermarle

Previously there has been a couple of threads discussing whether it was a good idea to carry all your personal finance info ( pensions, savings etc ) around on your phone, especially if the sums involved were significant.

One scenario mentioned was being forced to open apps etc due to the threat of violence. A very unlikely scenario, but not impossible. See the link from BBC news below. It is Crypto related, but still makes you think.

Crypto thieves attacked man in home and threatened to kill pregnant wife's baby in 'horrific' robbery - BBC News

aroominyork

My apps make transfers to my current account. I guess someone could force me to enter their bank details and transfer money to them, but they would then be identifiable unlike with crypto.

surreysaver

My phone has the Samsung Security folder thing or whatever it's called. But not all banks allow it to work.

Then I kept an old device so I could keep a device at home with most of the stuff I don't need on a daily basis on. But not all banks support older software. I've tried downloading apps to my daily device that I want when I go away, deleting them when I get back so they're not on it all the time, but some banks don't let you have their app on more than one device.

So you cannot win, as banks want you to have all your apps on you all the time

friolento

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6685379/financial-apps-on-your-phone

If they break into your home, it makes not much difference whether they force you to log into your phone or into your PC/laptop.

masonic

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82156577#Comment_82156577

When it comes to investment apps, in most cases unsettled funds cannot be withdrawn, so it would take a couple of working days for any realised cash to be made available. Then in some cases, withdrawals take another 3 working days.

I avoid having investment apps on my phone as I am not a trader and I would rather not give anything away about the accounts I may hold.

Therefore, my financial apps paint a picture of me as someone with a load of fairly empty current accounts, and a lot of credit card debt.

booneruk

As above. I don't think someone's going to force me to sell my shares/funds/bonds and then wait for settlement and withdrawal to my nominated accounts and then get me to pool it all into one giant send to their bank account

As soon as I've realised what's going on I'd have thrown my phone into a wall

It feels to me there's a much bigger risk of someone marching you to a cashpoint anyway

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6685379/financial-apps-on-your-phone

I don't think that the phone is particularly relevant in the case being cited.

If the victim was told to unlock his phone and his apps, or his safe, or to ring his bank and transfer all his money to wherever, then of course they are going to comply.

It's called a 'wrench attack' after a comic strip in which it's pointed out that no matter how complicated and secure your password is and regardless of the fact that it will take a supercomputer 10,000 years to decrypt it…..

Personally my carry-about phone has the apps for the banks whose cards I'm also carrying and not much else financial.

Another phone with everything on stays at home (although I did take it overseas on holiday recently)

Not really convinced that this enhances my security a great deal.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82156596#Comment_82156596

They can't make you log on to a site they don't know you use - in the reported case the intruders searched the victim's phone for apps, the presence of the app on the device suggests it is used and therefore worth checking further.

If you use a PC/laptop and clear settings (/don't save shortcuts) then there won't be the same evidence on the device of what financial organisations you use.

However, the extreme measures the intruders used would probably make most people confess which organisations their money is held with, whether or not there are apps/shortcuts/browsing history on the device or not.

artyboy

The other aspect of this case is that with crypto, it's effectively unregulated - you're not 'withdrawing' it from a bank where there are rules around how it's held and protected, nor is there any real traceability/recoverability once it has left your own wallet. That's what makes crypto a much softer target that conventional cash/investment assets.

jimjames

There are so many apps on my phone and most have zero or minimal balances that they'd be going for a while before they find the one that actually has anything there

fuzzzzy

I prefer not to have financial apps on my phone.

I have a YBS app because they invited me to download it for £10. I thought it would be good to leave it on the phone as my account only has £1 in it, so any would-be theives could see I was a pauper.

Unfortunately I have ended up with an oxbury app though, as I thought it was purely an authentication app to be able to access my account online, and did not realise that you can log in to the account through it on the phone. Although you can only withdraw to my nominated account it still bothers me a bit as it is a high balance account and I would prefer it not to be on my phone.