The security of your personal and financial information is our highest priority. We have many processes and procedures in place to ensure that we are protecting your accounts. But there is one important step you can also take, to help us protect you better. Adding a verbal password to your account.
What is a Verbal Password
When you call into our Member Contact Center, we will ask all kinds of questions that are intentionally difficult for identity thieves and scammers to answer, but should be relatively easy for you. An identity thief would really need to have a lot of information about you and your account to pass our series of questions. The reason we do that is that it would be easy for someone to tell us your mother's maiden name or your birth date, you can find that information on Facebook these days. So, we don't ask those types of questions.
However, on top of us asking you security questions, the number one step to keeping your financial information safe is adding a verbal password on to your account. A verbal password is exactly what it sounds like, it's a password that is spoken over the phone to verify who you are when calling into the credit union to access your account information. As simple as this added security measure is, many of our members opt out of adding this extra password onto their accounts. However, when you put a verbal password on your account, it's like your "Golden Ticket." I'm very serious. It is just like any password on any online account you would log into.
How to Set Up a Verbal Password
Your verbal password is usually set up at account opening but can be set up or changed at any time. To set up your verbal password, you choose your verbal password and password hint. For example, your password could be "Pancake", and your password hint would be "Breakfast Food". Then when you call into the credit union, we will ask you for your verbal password and you would say "Pancake".
Of course, just like any password, for this to keep you safe you cannot tell anyone else the password who shouldn't be accessing the account, you shouldn't write it down, and you should never carry it around with you. The verbal password should be one that means something to you, is easy to remember, but difficult for others to guess. Avoid easy questions like your maiden name, pets names, or places you used to live. Again, that is easy information an identity thief can easily learn about you online.
We encourage all members to consider adding a verbal password to their account. It's an added layer of security that helps us protect you even better. If you would like to add a verbal password to your account, simply let us know the next time you come to one of our branch locations or reach out to our Member Contact Center.
