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A guide to keeping your personal information secure

Technology has made everything we do in our daily life easier, especially the way we manage our finances. While the convenience is great, technology has also opened opportunities for more potential scams to get your information. But don’t worry! United Bank is here to relieve any stress this may cause. Click through this guide to discover simple tips that will help you keep your valuable information secure.

  • Secure your accounts: Ask for protection beyond passwords. Many account providers now offer additional ways for you to verify who you are before you conduct business on that site.
  • Make passwords long and strong: Combine capital and lowercase letters with numbers and symbols to create a more secure password.
  • Unique account, unique password: Separate passwords for every account helps to thwart cyber criminals.
  • Keep it safe: Everyone can forget a password. If you keep a list of passwords, make sure it's stored in a safe, secure place away from your computer or consider using a reputable password vault service.
  • Own your online presence: When available, set the privacy and security settings on websites to your comfort level for information sharing. It's okay to limit who you share information with.
  • Keep security software current: Having the latest security software, web browser, and operating system are the best defenses against viruses, malware, and other online threats.
  • Automate software updates: Many software programs will automatically connect and update to defend against known risks. Turn on automatic updates if that's an available option.
  • Protect all devices that connect to the Internet: Along with computers, smart phones, gaming systems, and other web-enabled devices also need protection from viruses and malware.
  • Plug and scan: "USBs" and other external devices can be infected by viruses and malware. Use your security software to scan them.
  • Stay current: Keep pace with new ways to stay safe online. Check trusted websites for the latest information, and share with friends, family, and colleagues and encourage them to be web wise.
  • Think before you act: Be wary of communications that push you to act immediately, offer something that sounds too good to be true, or ask for personal information.
  • Back it up: Protect your valuable work, music, photos, and other digital information by making an electronic copy and storing it safely.
  • When in doubt, throw it out: Links in email, tweets, posts, and online advertising are often the way cyber criminals compromise your computer. If it looks suspicious it's best to delete or, if appropriate, mark as junk email.
  • Get savvy about Wi-Fi hotspots: Limit the type of business you conduct and adjust the security settings on your device to limit who can access your machine.
  • Protect your $$: When banking and shopping, check to be sure the sites is security enabled. Look for web addresses with "https://" or "shttp://", which means the site takes extra measures to help secure your information. "http://" is not secure.
  • Safer for me, more secure for all: What you do online has the potential to affect everyone-at home, at work and around the world. Practicing good online habits benefits the global digital community.
  • Be mindful of what you post: Post only about others as you would have them post about you.
  • Help the authorities fight cyber crime: Report stolen finances or identities and other cyber crime to the Internet Crime Complaint Center and to your local law enforcement or state attorney general as appropriate.
You may not know it, but you have around-the-clock protection against the increasingly savvy perpetrators of card fraud. That's because your United Bank Card is protected by a fraud monitoring system. If fraud is suspected, you’ll receive a text message (from 37268) alerting you to the potential risk. If you do not respond to the text, an analyst will call you and will identify themselves as United Bank of Michigan’s Fraud Department on behalf of United Bank. If you cannot be reached, a message will be left asking you to return the call and speak to an analyst.
Here are key ways that United Bank helps to safeguard your information when you bank online:
  • 128-Bit Encryption: When you access your accounts and perform transactions within Online Banking, your information is protected by 128-bit encryption.
  • Multifactor Authentication: If you are a using our consumer online banking, we use a Multifactor Authentication program that uses your login in conjunction with a PC imprint to confirm your identity.
  • Secure Firewalls: The computer servers that run our Online Banking sites are protected by numerous firewalls to help prevent unauthorized access to our network. These firewalls are monitored 24/7 to prevent security breaches.
  • Session Timeouts: If you're signed on and not using your Online Banking for several minutes, your session will "time out." To resume your banking activity, you'll need to re-enter your User ID and Password.
  • Account Masking: All of your accounts are masked (XXXX1234) so anyone shoulder-surfing can't identify your account numbers.
  • IP Intelligence Systems: Sometimes called anomaly detection. United Bank monitors each and every login by comparing registered PCs, IP addresses, browser versions, city, state, country and several other factors to build a profile of each customer. Login exceptions that do not match existing profiles are reviewed by United Bank staff.


We're here to help

Your security is important to us, so we do whatever we can to ensure your information is secure. That's why we offer the following free services to help increase your level of security:
  • Card Manager: If you misplace your debit card, keeping it safe while you look for it is easy. Just log in to our mobile banking app to temporarily disable your card.
  • Mobile Pay: Using your United Bank debit card with services like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, or Google Pay is an effective way to keep your card safe. Mobile pay uses an encrypted version of your card, making it more difficult for hackers to access your information.
  • Email and Text Alerts: You can choose from a variety of alerts that will make monitoring your account activity easier than ever. 
  • eStatements: Sign up for eStatements to get your statements faster and more secure than paper statements.
If you have more questions on personal security, we hope you'll reach out to us. Our team is dedicated to offering the best in customer service, plus, you can call us at 616.559.7000 or chat with us online anytime, day or night!