I got my first “modern” cell phone in 2005, a Motorola Razr. I say modern as there were several cell phones in my past as we’ve talked in previous articles, but they were strictly a telephone that worked off of cellular towers and could be used in a pinch as a club (those old batteries were heavy!). My first “modern” phone had the ability to text message which took me a while to get the hang of. In fact, I remember making some flip remark about why anyone would want to text when they could just call.

Let’s fast forward to 2018, I’m now seven phones from that Razr, each one with wonderful upgrades that I didn’t know I needed (Facial recognition? Get me some of that!) and am now what could only be described as a phone call snob. Which is to say, I don’t want to answer phone calls ever...just text me. The evolution happened quickly enough that I didn’t even realize it but here we are. And because we here at Bruning Bank know that I’m not terribly unique in that stance, we are going to make a change to our debit card fraud notification procedures.

Starting on April 2^nd, our system will text you if your cell phone number is in our system and it thinks that a transaction made on your card is fraudulent. You will then have the ability to simply answer the text with a Y or a N if you authorized the transaction or not and be on your way. If you did not authorize the transaction in question, the procedures do not change from what is happening with the phone calls, your case will be handled by trained professionals that will get your card shut down before more issues can happen. If you do not respond to the text within 15 minutes, you will receive a phone call just like you do now. If your cell phone is not on our system or you do not have a cell phone, you will receive a call just like you do now.

We hope that these new procedures make using our debit cards more convenient for you while also protecting everyone from debit card fraud. The next time you stop by or call one of our branches we encourage you to verify whether your cell number is on our system, not just for this but also for any questions that may come up about your accounts with us. As your financial partners we realize how important timely communication can be. As always if you have any questions about these new procedures, please give us a call, we would be glad to discuss them with you. Thank you for your business!

Corey Swartzendruber
Chief Information Officer