You will be able to set bank limits and alerts so any unusual transfer is small, slow and noticed.
Open your banking app and find your daily transfer limit. Many people have never looked. Some find it's set to tens of thousands of dollars, a number they agreed to years ago for a one-off payment and never changed back. That limit is the ceiling on how much can leave your account in a day, and right now a scammer who gets into your account gets the same ceiling you do.
Lesson 7.2, Money Lock: savings that cannot be moved online, protected the bulk of your savings. This lesson protects the money that stays free. You'll set three things: a limit that keeps any loss small, alerts that tell you the moment money moves, and a way to stop everything in seconds if you see something wrong.
Your bank lets you set the maximum amount that can be sent out through digital banking each day. This usually covers transfers to other people and accounts, including PayNow, and is set in the security or transfer settings of your app.
Set it to what you actually need. For most people, a normal day involves a few small transfers: splitting a dinner bill, paying a friend back, a rent transfer once a month. Look at your last few months of transfers and find the biggest one that happens regularly. Set your limit a little above that.
When you need to make a larger transfer, like a deposit on a flat or a payment for a renovation, raise the limit for that day, make the payment, then lower it again. It's a minute of extra effort a few times a year.
Here is an illustration. Nadia, 29, had a daily limit of S$50,000 from when she paid her wedding banquet deposit. Her normal monthly transfers are rent of S$1,200 and a few small PayNow payments. She lowers her limit to S$2,000. If a scammer ever gets into her app, the most they can move in a day is S$2,000, and the next part of this lesson makes sure she'd know about it within seconds.
A low limit also buys time. A scam that would empty an account in one night now needs several days, and each of those days is a chance for you, or your bank, to notice.
Banks send a notification when money leaves your account above a certain amount. You can choose that amount, and the right choice is the lowest your bank allows. Check your bank's alert settings for the current minimum.
The point is to hear about every payment, not just the large ones. Scammers sometimes test an account with a small transfer first to check it works. If your alerts only fire above a few hundred dollars, that test passes silently. With alerts on every transaction, the first unfamiliar payment reaches your phone and you can act before the second.
Yes, this means more notifications. Most of them will be your own spending, and they take a second to glance at. That glance is also a good habit for catching card fraud, subscription charges you forgot about and mistakes.
Singapore banks provide a way to freeze your accounts yourself in an emergency, often called a kill switch. When you use it, the bank blocks your cards and stops digital banking transactions, so nothing more can leave. It's built for the moment you realise something is wrong, such as an alert for a payment you didn't make, or a call you suddenly recognise as a scam.
You'll usually find it in two places. One is inside the banking app, often under a security or help section. The other is your bank's hotline, where you can ask for an emergency freeze. Some banks offer it through internet banking as well.
Find it before you need it. In a real emergency your hands may be shaking and your phone may be compromised. If you've opened the menu once before, you'll find it again in seconds. If your phone itself might be under a scammer's control, use the hotline from a different phone.
Know too what happens afterwards. Turning your accounts back on usually takes more than a tap. Check your bank's website for its steps, so you're not surprised. Lesson 8.1, The first fifteen minutes: call the bank and freeze, covers what to say once the freeze is on.
Alerts only help if they reach you. Banks send them to the mobile number and email address on your account, and people change both more often than they update their bank.
Check which number and email your bank has. If you've changed phone numbers, moved to a new email or stopped checking an old one, update it. Some people still have alerts going to an email they last opened years ago.
Also make sure your notifications are actually on. If you've switched off notifications for your banking app to cut down on noise, an alert can arrive and sit unseen until morning. Turn them back on.
That's three settings, a few minutes each, and you've already seen where to find them. In the activity, you'll put each one in place for your own accounts.
Set your daily transfer limit, set alerts to the lowest threshold, and find where your bank's emergency freeze sits in its app.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).