Don’t interact with your bank on social media

In its newsletter for October 2024, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation cautioned people about interacting with their financial institution on social media.

My advice is not to do it. You don’t want strangers, or even friends, to know where you have an account.

Interacting with your financial institution on social media

Banks are using social media to advertise their products and services, obtain feedback from consumers, and, in some cases, provide a gateway for customers to access their accounts, the FDIC said in its newsletter. Financial institutions also may use social media to share information with their local communities and to solicit feedback from them. 

Before you decide to interact with your bank on social media, you should visit your bank or its website to learn about its social media policies, the FDIC advises. You can learn how the bank is using social media, its guidelines, and whether there are other ways to communicate with your bank to conduct business.

The FDIC’s cautions are:

Communicating with your bank

If you decide to communicate with your bank on social media platforms, keep in mind that your posts could become public, even though you can protect your communications and posts to some extent through your account settings.

Never include any personal, confidential, or account information in your posts. Also, reputable social media sites won’t ask you for your Social Security number, credit card or debit card numbers, or your bank account passwords.

When you need to provide the bank with specific information such as your account number or balance, good options include calling the bank directly or using a secure communication channel such as the bank’s online or mobile banking platform.

It’s also best to avoid posting personal information that a fraudster could use to impersonate you. Information that may seem safe to share could be helpful to an identity thief. Be cautious, even with details such as the name of your pet or a school you attended. That type of information is often requested by banks for their security “challenge questions” that are used to authenticate access to accounts. A fraudster could use that information to log in to your account. 

Some social media sites require or encourage people to provide their birthdate. You should evaluate how comfortable you are providing this and similar information and who, if anyone, would be able to see it.

You should also be mindful of a website’s use of cookies. Cookies are small pieces of data that are sent to your browser every time you visit a website. Websites save this data, and this data can be used in a variety of ways. For example, cookies can be used to save your login information to make it easier for you to sign in the next time you access the site. You can opt out of cookies by changing your browser settings.

Read what the bank’s policies say about whether, and how, personal information will be kept secure. Also find out what options you may have to limit the sharing of your information. 

In addition, look carefully to see whose site or social media handle you are accessing, and which policies apply. You might have started out on the bank’s webpage, but clicked on a link that took you to another company’s page, where that company’s policies will apply.

Banking through social media

Some banks use their social media sites as a gateway for consumers to bank online. Make sure you are on a secure page and on the bank’s legitimate site before you enter your username, account number, or password.

Look for clues that might indicate that the site is fraudulent, such as misspellings, a low number of “likes” in a profile, or grammatical errors in the web content. If only a few consumers are subscribed to a social media page that supposedly belongs to a large bank, that could be an indication that the page you’re on isn’t the bank’s official page.

You should also look for a padlock symbol on your web browser. If you have any doubts, go to your bank’s website instead of linking to it from a social media site.

Reaching out about problems

Banking regulations that protect consumers apply to bank activities even when they use social media. If you’re in doubt or identify a suspicious website activity, contact your financial institution.

You can also file a complaint with the agency that regulates your financial institution.

Final thoughts

Again, my advice is not to interact with your bank or credit union on social media. It’s too complicated to follow the FDIC’s steps for checking out social media procedures and you could be a victim of fraud either because you disclosed some information or got tricked by a scammer.

Ironically, among the FDIC’s warnings was a suggestion that people follow the agency on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn “for more helpful consumer tips.”