Reasons We Share Your Personal Information

For our everyday business purposes — such as to process your transactions, maintain your account(s), respond to court orders and legal investigations, or report to credit bureaus

For our marketing purposes — to offer our products and services to you

Identity Theft

Identity theft happens when someone steals your personal information and uses it without your permission. If identity thieves have your personal information, they can drain your bank account, run up charges on your credit cards, open new utility accounts, or get medical treatment on your health insurance.

Tips in protecting your identity:

• Lock your financial records and documents in a safe place at home, and lock your wallet or purse in a safe place at work. Keep your information secure from visitors or workers who come into your home.
• When you go out, limit what you take. Take only the identification, credit, and debit cards you need. Do not carry your Social Security card. Make a copy of your Medicare card and black out all but the last four digits on the copy. Carry the copy with you, unless you are going to use your card at the doctor’s office.
• Shred documents that you no longer need, such as receipts, credit offers, insurance forms, physician statements, checks, bank statements, expired credit cards, and similar documents. Should you need to retain receipts, statements and other documents, be sure to store them in a safe location.
• Don’t share your health plan information with anyone who offers free health services or products. Destroy the labels on prescription bottles before you throw them out.
• Take outgoing mail to the post office. Promptly remove mail that arrives in your mailbox. If you won’t be home for several days, request a vacation hold on your mail.
• Do not give your bank account number, debit card number, credit card number, social security number, date of birth or other personal information over the phone, unless you initiated the phone call.
• Do not send your bank account numbers, debit or credit card numbers or other personal information though email, as it is usually not secure.
• Do not text message account numbers, Social Security number, date of birth or other personal information.
• Do not store user IDs and/or passwords on your mobile device.
• Password protect your mobile device so it can’t be accessed unless the password is entered.
• Be wary of suspicious emails. Never open attachments, click on links or respond to emails from unknown or suspicious individuals/companies. Some scammers may offer a reward to complete a survey or claim your account and/or credit/debit card is locked. These techniques are an attempt to obtain confidential information.
• Be wary of texting, calling and voicemails from persons or entities you are not expecting, especially requests for personal information or immediate action.
• Make sure your internet purchase is secured with encryption to protect your account information. This can be achieved by looking in the address bar of the website and locate https://. The “s” indicates that the web page uses encryption and is “secure”. You can also look in the lower right corner of your web browser and look for the ‘lock’ symbol.
• It is a good idea to keep certain personal information private when utilizing ‘social media’. Avoid sharing personal details that are used by financial institutions to identify you, such as your birth date, home address, schools attended, mother’s maiden name and pet’s name. Identity thieves may use this type of information to help gain access to an account since they are common answers to security questions.
• If your wallet, Social Security card, or other personal, financial or account information are lost or stolen, contact the credit reporting companies and place a fraud alert on your credit file. Check your bank and other account statements for unusual activity.
• Order a free copy of your credit report periodically to monitor your accounts. You have a right to one free copy of your credit report from each of the national credit reporting companies every year. If you stagger your orders, you can get a credit report every four months. Click here to learn more.