News

15 frightening ways Americans endanger their financial data

Are consumers careless about protecting their personal data — or are they simply convinced that nothing they do will make a difference?

November 18, 2014

ID Watchdog, a provider of identity theft protection for U.S. consumers, has released results of an identity fraud survey conducted on its behalf by OnePoll during the first week of November.

The survey polled 1,313 cardholding U.S. adults about their own practices in safeguarding personal financial information. The results were less than encouraging, and perhaps the best argument yet for biometric ID methods.

Following are some of the polling results:

1. Most important to Americans when they come up with a PIN for their bank or credit card is that they can remember it (86 percent); just 31 percent believe a PIN should be as unique as possible.
2. Seventy-two percent have different online banking logins and PINs for different accounts; 1 in 5 uses the same password.
3. More than 50 percent of respondents write down their login/PIN in order to remember it.
4. Twenty-two percent say they change their PIN every one to six months; 18 percent change it every six months to one year; 25 percent never change their PIN.
5. Seventy-one percent write down their user names and passwords.
6. Forty percent say that at least one other person knows their user name and password.
7. Thirty-three percent know their spouse or partner’s PIN; 12 percent know their mom’s PIN; 10 percent know their child’s PIN.
8. Fifty-two percent know at least one other person’s PIN.
9. Nearly one in 10 knows a friend or colleague’s PIN.
10. 11 percent have given their bankcard and PIN to a coworker or friend to take out cash at an ATM or make a store purchase.
11. Sixty percent enter their social security number when applying for credit and other things online.
12. Forty-seven percent include their entire birthdate when providing info on social media sites.
13. Only 44 percent say they are much more cautious as a result of recent identity theft issues and security breaches.
14. Thirty-six percent are not trying to reduce the sharing of their user name, password, PIN, social security number, and other data.
15. Eight percent say they have at one time selected a common numerical or alphabetical combination for their PIN.