Once upon a time, we all thought thieves and armed robbers have been defeated with the ad vent of the ATM machine. Why because you never have to keep huge amount of cash with you. However the rising cases of ATM robbery seems to render that safeguard useless. We have heard report of robbers forcing victims to give out cards, pins and coughing out every thing in their bank account. Scenarios like this take place sometimes at the ATM centers or even any other location. Victims are held at gun point while the robbers coerce them to have their way.
You might not be able to withstand the robbers when they come – remember nobody prays to be robbed. But you can minimise your risk if not eliminate it. And here is how with this simple commandments.
1. Thou shalt not always have your ATM with you.
Your ATM does not always have to live in your wallet. Talk about the speculative and precautionary motive of holding cash. Withdraw what is enough to serve you for the week and keep the ATM card somewhere, afterall its not your guardian angel, God is. Whenever there is an emergency you can always come back home and pick it to withdraw. Its easy to say ‘what if I really need money at that exact moment’ – my answer is read on cos man shall not live by access to immediate cash alone.
2. Thou shalt have another account not linked to your ATM card.
This could be your salary account or your main account through which you receive inflows. Then have another account2 to which you transfer periodic cash into for your day to day spending. The account2 will be the one linked to your ATM card. If you are ever robbed, your risk will be limited to the amount of money in your account and not your main account.
3. Create an Investment account for excess funds
If you are always having above 100,000 left in your account at any given time. I see no reason why you leave it fallow for robbers to make use of. Move it to a fixed or call deposit or rather still to a mutual fund deposit somewhere else. The advantage is that whenever you need to make withdrawal, you have to instruct the bank to do so. And you can easily open an Investment account that allows you to make partial withdrawals. This is one sure place where fraud and robbery cannot access.
4. Get use to Internet Banking
Cultivate the idea of using Internet Banking to pay bills and give people money. It will reduce the need to always keep cash. Its also important whenever you intend to transfer money between your bank accounts. Believe me, if majority of your bills and payments are off settled via Internet Banking, you will have lesser reasons to keep huge amount of idle cash to keep in your ATM card account.
And that’s my little piece of advice folks. To a safer world for us all.
Most of the times, Zion peers at the computer screen, tweaking codes, analysing and calculating figures, manipulating the screen and digging deep into the World Wide Web. A combination of many different things in one thing. You don’t have to bother understanding that.