Living full time on the road. How do you do your banking?

[Mike-Mat]

How are you accessing your banking, CC statements and such?
Where do you go to use a secure wifi for accessing these types of transactions? We have a PC with a VPN and AntiVirus. But is that enough?

We're about to go full time RV'ing and I want to be safe with my data.


Interested in your suggestions.

Thanks,
Mike

[JWood422]

Let me give you my account number and routing number so you can see how it works.

I get all my statements through email. Direct deposit works great for recurring income payments. Your bank probably has an app that you can use for mobile deposits. Every now and then I have to mail a check but not often. You can probably have your bank mail payments for you.

VPN providers claim to be all that. I have one but still don’t understand how it works.

[Mike-Mat]

They tell you not to use a public wifi.
If you live on the road, where can you access private/more secure wifi?


I'm thinking of a 5G phone with wifi hotspot capability.
Anyone doing that?

[Mikec557]

Originally Posted by Mike-Mat

How are you accessing your banking, CC statements and such?
Where do you go to use a secure wifi for accessing these types of transactions? We have a PC with a VPN and AntiVirus. But is that enough?

We're about to go full time RV'ing and I want to be safe with my data.

Interested in your suggestions.

Thanks,
Mike

First you need to set up all your financial services online, eg, savings, checking, credit cards, bill paying, etc. Also, set all of these up for paperless. You don't want snail mail chasing you around the country.

I suggest you use the bank and credit card apps on your phone for everything. If you need to use a laptop, connect ONLY to a secure internet access point. That rules out all public access points.

We set up our cell phone to be a Hotspot. At first our cell phone provider ignored that we (and I'm sure millions of others) were doing so. The provider closed the loophole and then, for the first time, began selling Hotspot ability. You'll have to figure out what you need to do with your cellphone provider, or change providers. For banking purposes you don't need much data. If you want to watch movies, that's another topic. By the way, we don't use a VPN when hotspotting on our phone.

I also suggest you set up mail service with Escapees RV. They'll give you a mailing address for whatever you may need mailed to you. Once it's there, you tell them when and where to send your mail to you. For instance, somewhere your camping for a week or two.

There's other ways to do all this, but this worked well for us.

Edit
PS, yes you can set up your bank to mail out a payment for you if that is necessary. But most places like that will let you pay by phone with credit card.

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by Mike-Mat

We're about to go full time RV'ing and I want to be safe with my data.
Mike

We bank online and access our statements through our computer. We have a bank that has branches in most of the areas we travel in case we need cash. We access credit cards online also and pay the bills through the online bank. Most will be paid by automatic transfers, but some are mailed checks. Many of the monthly bills like insurance are automatically billed to a credit card. That way we can dispute it if something goes horribly wrong.

For a secure connection, use the hotspot on your smartphone or buy a separate hotspot from a telephone carrier and use that. You don't want to use campground wifi or wifi at your favorite restaurant. Many consider hotspots best because you won't be running the battery on your phone down.

It's best to set this up now so that you'll be comfortable using it on the road and you can get any 'bugs' out before you leave.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Mike-Mat

They tell you not to use a public wifi.
If you live on the road, where can you access private/more secure wifi?


I'm thinking of a 5G phone with wifi hotspot capability.
Anyone doing that?

We do.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Forest River Forums mobile app

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by Mike-Mat

I'm thinking of a 5G phone with wifi hotspot capability.
Anyone doing that?

I have a 5G phone with wifi hotspot capability. 5G isn't as available as they advertise, but these hotspots will operate on the wifi available. The only negative is depleting the battery quickly.

[DougW]

We did pretty much what has already been suggested. We set up our recurring payments to auto pay from our bank account or on our credit card, direct deposit all income, and use the bank’s app on our smartphone. Our accounts are at Bank Of America (BOA) and we can do everything we need from the App. Also my IRA is with Merrill Lynch which is the same company as BOA and our total balance is enough so we get free checks, and no ATM fees on our transactions.

[Webefine]

We have our phones through AT&T and we have a hotspot through Verizon so between the two of them we can “usually” get service to do all our banking on line.

[yukongold]

I asked the same question(s) before our last trip - 6+ weeks - as I needed to pay bills (utility and others) while on the road. Best answer I got, and the one I used, was to use the cell phone data connection. It is as secure as anything since it is yours and your alone connection to the internet.


My phone is 4G.
I connected it to my laptop via USB cable (no wireless between the phone and laptop that could be liable to interception - only the phone data connection (best you can do)).
I went into settings and turned off wifi and turned on USB tethering. (I believe any 4G or 5G phone is able to use tethering)
I then used the laptop just as if I were sitting at my cable connected desktop at home.

The way I understand it is that the laptop uses the phones data connection to access the internet. The carrier isn't aware that you are bypassing their "hotspot" service that they charge extra for.

Worked well for me. I paid bills, checked e-mail, even downloaded an ebook from the Kobo website.

[NavyLCDR]

I use EasyTether Pro on my 5G phone so I don't have to use my limited hotspot data.

[emm-dee]

For the folks that think whenever you connect via a hotspot device or cellphone hotspot, have y’all considered that anyone “hacking” your connection has to be within 100 feet in order to get a connection. These devices are notoriously short with their range capabilities. Mine is working great right now but it’s about 20 feet away.

On another related topic I have only written three checks in the past four years. All of them were to SiriusXM. I did the check thing because once SXM has your CC number they will automatically bill you at renewal time, and it will be billed at the full (no one ever pays that) retail rate. When I tried to renew last week SXM no longer accepts checks.

So, I billed it ($56) to my Apple CC. With the Apple Mastercard (really Goldman Sachs) you can go into the iPhone Wallet app and have the card number changed after you make a transaction you don’t want to be automatically billed later. No limitations on number of changes and no phone calls required.

[itat]

If I were going to go full time I’d seriously consider a mobile router like a Pepwave and put SIM cards in it from 2 separate providers. Regardless of whether you opt for a hotspot or mobile router, using a VPN service is always a good idea.

[NMWildcat]

We don't full time in the RV but we travel a large portion of the time.
We have every payment set up as auto pay so we don't have to worry about deadlines. Everything is also paperless and accessible online.
We have a Verizon 55+ unlimited data plan. We keep close track on all transactions via apps we access on our phones or tablet.
Any charge made to any CC or debit card immediately notifies us via text message.
If we need more in depth transaction with our bank, we use the video teller option.
The only time we fire up the laptop and connect via phone hotspot is when we have to type out long emails or the like.
My wife likes to read paper versions of important documents so we have a small printer/scanner we can use on the road from any of our devices.
We got rid of our mobile hotspots long ago as we found we had no need for them.
Cash on the road is easy as long as you pay attention to the ATM service you use for minimal or no transaction fee.
You can do most everything online these days fairly easily.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by NMWildcat

We don't full time in the RV but we travel a large portion of the time.
We have every payment set up as auto pay so we don't have to worry about deadlines. Everything is also paperless and accessible online.
We have a Verizon 55+ unlimited data plan. We keep close track on all transactions via apps we access on our phones or tablet.
Any charge made to any CC or debit card immediately notifies us via text message.
If we need more in depth transaction with our bank, we use the video teller option.
The only time we fire up the laptop and connect via phone hotspot is when we have to type out long emails or the like.
My wife likes to read paper versions of important documents so we have a small printer/scanner we can use on the road from any of our devices.
We got rid of our mobile hotspots long ago as we found we had no need for them.
Cash on the road is easy as long as you pay attention to the ATM service you use for minimal or no transaction fee.
You can do most everything online these days fairly easily.

And with the right bank you can get reimbursed for ATM fees. One of my banks and my Credit Union will reimburse any fees up to a reasonable amount per statement.

[rekaj321]

We use Capital One online banking nnd mortar. Simple and easy to use and has app for your phone. If you are worried about fraud you can freeze your credit as we do. So that way even if I need to make a major purchase requiring credit check ie. house, car etc. I have to unfreeze my own credit in order to purchase. Easy process to do this and is the most secure way to insure you can't be compromised.

[camper_Lucy]

One thing I just want to point out here since it seems prevalent.

Hotspots are no more secure then public Wifi, yes you "hopefully" set up a password to access it but hotspot can be compromised exactly the same as public wifi is, and with the same hacking tools.

Always, always run a VPN client on your devices.

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by camper_Lucy

One thing I just want to point out here since it seems prevalent.



Hotspots are no more secure then public Wifi, yes you "hopefully" set up a password to access it but hotspot can be compromised exactly the same as public wifi is, and with the same hacking tools.



Always, always run a VPN client on your devices.

An addition to this statement; Not all VPNs are beneficial. Some (especially the free ones) come with their own adware and possibly malware. Research which VPN you should use and get it from a reliable source.

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by camper_Lucy

Hotspots are no more secure then public Wifi, yes you "hopefully" set up a password to access it but hotspot can be compromised exactly the same as public wifi is, and with the same hacking tools.

Are you saying that my hotspot that has it's own telephone number is not more secure than hooking up to a McDonald's hotspot or campground wifi that has no password? That's many people sharing one connection.
I agree that a person who intends to hack into your phone or standalone hotspot could break into the wifi connection, but if they have the right tools, they can break into your home wifi router also. Nothing is 100% secure and that includes VPNs. They are a network that can be hacked and can slow down your connection or make it impossible to connect to a site.

Every hotspot, either standalone or on my phone, has had a password to connect to my computer. Also, banks and credit card companies have pretty good (not perfect) security protocols. Use a two step authentication to verify your identity - that means they send you a text message, an email or a phone call which gives you a code to access the site.

[Mike-Mat]

All great advise. Confirms some things I thought I knew. But gave me some new things to consider. Thanks to all who responded.
Looking forward to the road ahead.