Interacting with your financial institution on social media
Many people connect with friends, meet new people, and interact with businesses on social media sites and apps such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Banks are also 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. Financial institutions also may use social media to share information with their local communities and to solicit feedback from them.
Should you use social media to connect with your bank? And, if you do, what should you keep in mind? Before you decide, you should visit your bank or its website to learn about its social media policies. 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.
Advertising Products and Services
There can be benefits to using social media to interact with banks. You might find out about new bank products or services more quickly or be eligible to obtain special offers. You might also obtain faster responses to your questions or complaints.
Banking regulations that protect consumers apply to bank activities even when they use social media. For example, there are FDIC regulations prohibiting the use of false advertising, misrepresentations of deposit insurance coverage, and misuse of the FDIC's name and logo.
FDIC-associated terms or images may not be used in marketing and advertising materials to inaccurately imply or represent that any uninsured financial product or non–bank entity is insured or guaranteed by the FDIC. If you are in doubt or identify a suspicious website with financial products representing FDIC insurance, please contact the FDIC National Center for Consumer and Depositor Assistance (NCDA) at 1-877-ASK-FDIC (1-877-275-3342) to speak with a deposit insurance specialist or go to ask.fdic.gov.
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 will not 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 like 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 is 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 very large bank, that could be an indication that the page you are on is not the bank’s official page. You should also look for a padlock symbol on your web browser. If you have any doubts, go directly to your bank’s website instead of linking to it from a social media site.
When it comes to social media, knowing how your bank uses it and its potential risks can help you keep your money safe. Follow the FDIC on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more helpful consumer tips.
Additional Resources:
- FDIC, Know Your Risk Protect Your Money
- FDIC Consumer News, Scammers and Fake Banks
- FDIC Consumer News, Banking With Third Party Apps
- Digital Literacy, Information Literacy.gov
- Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), 5 Ways Fraudsters May Lure Victims Into Scams Involving Crypto Asset Securities – Investor Alert
- Commodities & Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Customer Advisory: Avoid Forex, Precious Metals, and Digital Asset Romance Scams
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Can a debt collector contact me through social media?
For more consumer resources, visit FDIC.gov, or go to the FDIC Knowledge Center. You can also call the FDIC toll-free at 1-877-ASK-FDIC (1-877-275-3342). Please send your story ideas or comments to ConsumerEducation@fdic.gov. You can subscribe to this and other free FDIC publications to keep informed!