Banking Firewall
Being an IT geek, I love when people explain things in IT terms. One of the money management blogs that I read on a regular basis had a post on Setting Up Buffer / Firewall Bank Accounts. This has a practical application for many of us who live overseas, not to mention just doing business on a daily basis. The idea is that you have a “firewall” bank account set up between your actual bank account and any bill payment/online purchases, like so:
So…
“…whenever you need to give out your account information to a questionable entity, use the Firewall account numbers. This way, the money in your main account is always protected. Even if your Firewall account gets compromised and your account and routing numbers are being spread around the internet and sold to the highest bidder, there would be nothing to take!”
I’ve already started using this method, and it’s a load off my mind. It’s slightly inconvenient, as the blog author points out, since
“…there is the added step that whenever you need to send out money, you first must transfer money from your main checking to your Firewall checking, and then withdraw from there…”
but I don’t care, as my main account is protected.
