I’m 50 now.  Shhh – don’t tell anyone.  My brain still hasn’t caught up with my physical age in many ways, and I kind of hope it doesn’t.   I’m actually working on just the opposite – getting my physicality in a little better shape, and a little ‘younger.’  It’s a long-term commitment, for sure.

My brain does act 50 sometimes though – when it comes to being technology-savvy, I’m a little slow to get on board.  It took a lot of poking and prodding to get me on Facebook.  I’ve been on it for a few years, and I have to face facts – my technology-driven friends were ‘right on.’  I’ve reconnected & learned more about friends -from my current pals all the way back to elementary school chums.  Facebook is as intimidating as I let it be.  I’ve learned to manage the urge to be on it incessantly.  I’ve become closer with some of my friends as a result, and I know some acquaintances better than before.

I have a Smartphone, read books and magazines on my Kindle, am on LinkedIn (the professional social network, so they say), and I do most of my banking via the internet.  I get my bank statements via email, and I have to stop sometimes as I flip through my mail at home – and ask myself why haven’t I signed up for almost everything to come electronically?   So much paper is wasted….

Truth is, I’m not quite as tech-savvy as I could be, but I’m solidly above the bottom of the matrix.  Maybe I’m in the ‘first quartile’ of tech-savvy?  I don’t tweet, use Foursquare or Hootsuite, and frankly, don’t even know what a couple of those are.  But I’m trying. Are you?

The New Year gives us the little nudge we need sometimes to try something new. Maybe you’ve been thinking about trying online banking or online bill pay. Maybe you’d like to use mobile banking, but you’re just not sure. Do it. Take that leap and try something new this year. Who knows, maybe you’ll be like this 50 year old and find that technology can be good. 

You’ve made it through Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, holiday gift exchanges, holiday dinners, family gatherings, post-holiday sales, gift returns, refunds, exchanges and you ask yourself now what?  Well, there’s no doubt that during all of the holiday festivities that you have most likely used your MutualBank debit cards, credit cards, and checks.

You’ve probably used your MutualBank financial tools more over the last several weeks than the previous couple of months put together.  This means unfortunately there are more opportunities for fraud to occur during the holiday season.  Fraudsters and hackers are always attempting to get bank account information, especially during the holidays. One of the most important resources MutualBank has are our customers. That's why you will see us continue in the fight to protect consumers against fraud. 

You are part of our front line defense against consumer financial fraud.  Our job is to make sure that our customers, like you, are informed to protect their financial assets against fraud.  A simple first step is to make sure that you know your spending habits.  The easiest way you can do this is to carefully review your bank and credit card statements that cover the holiday time period.

Tips on reviewing your holiday spending:

• Use your statements or MutualBank’s Personal Online Banking…are you signed up for eStatements yet?  
• Look for extra charges from retailers that you visited.
• Pay close attention to your online purchase listings. 
• View your cleared checks to make sure that they were not altered in any way to change the payees or dollar amounts.
• If you see any debits or charges on your statements that look suspicious please notify our Customer Support area immediately by email or by calling 800-382-8031. Additionally, we welcome you to stop by any of our locations!

If you are a victim of online fraud you should also file a complaint at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. 

Like what you read today? Stay tuned. At the beginning of every month, we’ll provide you with new security tips. Just one more way we’re trying to help you live a better life!

Are all of your gifts bought and wrapped? If so, I’m impressed!

Generally speaking, I am shopping all the way up to Christmas day. Sometimes it’s because I can’t decide what to buy and sometimes it’s simply because I haven’t made enough time to shop. Either way, there have been times I’ve found myself in a bind. It’s Christmas Eve and I finally decide what I want to give, but I can’t purchase it before the store closes. So what am I to do?

This year, I started shopping a couple of weeks ago and throughout one of my purchases, I had an experience I couldn’t resist sharing with you. Did you know you could use your UChoose Loyalty Reward points for gift cards? Did you know you could get some of those gift cards the same day? Let me share with you about my recent Christmas shopping experience.

I was using my lunch hour to complete some online Christmas shopping.  It just so happened that I could get four different gifts for people on Amazon.com. Once I confirmed my soon to be gifts, I proceeded to checkout.  As I arrived on the page asking for my debit or credit card number, I realized I could get a gift card with my UChoose Loyalty Rewards. It only occurred to me while I was checking out because a day earlier, my coworker said you can get UChoose Loyalty Reward gift cards emailed to you rather than wait the 7-10 days for a plastic gift card to come in the mail.

So I hopped over to the UChoose Loyalty Reward website to purchase a gift card with my points. I found the Amazon gift card, selected the amount I wanted, chose how I would prefer to receive it (mail or email) and added it to my cart.  (Side note: I found in most cases, it was cheaper, less points that is, to choose the email option than the plastic option.) After I confirmed my purchase, I went over to my email and lo and behold, there it was!  I used the gift card immediately and was able to complete my Amazon purchase.

As Christmas is only five days away, I thought you needed to know about this convenience. If you’re anything like me, still sorting out who to buy for and what to get, keep in mind UChoose Loyalty Reward gift cards. You could order it and receive it in less than 15 minutes.