So I just got an pop-up from I logged in To my Bank of America account via the app, there is a new security feature if you turn on it monitors your cards for fraud based on location. The message says that if the feature is turned on, it uses the location based data on your phone and match it to the location where your card is being used. And even if you don't open the app it check once a day. Something interesting ....
Oh, in the app it says that if you don’t log into the mobile app, it only feeds once a day .
That could be a good thing! 
@CountryLivin wrote:That could be a good thing!
How granular is the location reporting?
City level might be fine. But even coarse GPS or WiFi location gives far greater detail, so there's no way they could ever get just "city".
Walking past the pawn shop on the way to Whole Foods - entirely possible where I live - what if the bank takes their snapshot while I'm in front of the pawn shop? What if they see that every few days? Will they decide I'm having money problems? Don't laugh - it's naive to think that banks don't notice when you back off from Kohl's and start hitting the Family Dollar. The credit union I once worked at sure did.
Also, not sure how comfortable I am with the banks getting the population comfortable with GPS tracking, especially always-on. As soon as enough people don't mind, it then becomes a requirement if you want zero-liability.
Right now, the bank is liable if my card is misused, barring lack of ordinary care on my part. I like it that way. I'm willing to inconvenience myself and go to the website to say "I'll be traveling to New Mexico for New Year's". The possibility of a card being declined is among the reasons why I carry cardS from more than one issuer. They won't all get indigestion because I had a bagel in Maine and now I'm having lunch in Pennsylvania, even if I forget to warn them.
This is a solution in search of a problem, or probably more accurately, a Trojan Horse appeal to get more and more of our data wrapped up in a pretty package labeled "for your convenience." BofA is offering me my credit score for free! All I have to do is use their app! Why can I not get this valuable service on the website, hmmmmm?
No, thank you.
Nope. Location services stays off on my phone.
The banks have enough of my personal data. I'm not giving them any more than I have to.
The banks have enough of my personal data. I'm not giving them any more than I have to.
@BurgeoningHope wrote:
@CountryLivin wrote:That could be a good thing!
How granular is the location reporting?
City level might be fine. But even coarse GPS or WiFi location gives far greater detail, so there's no way they could ever get just "city".
Walking past the pawn shop on the way to Whole Foods - entirely possible where I live - what if the bank takes their snapshot while I'm in front of the pawn shop? What if they see that every few days? Will they decide I'm having money problems? Don't laugh - it's naive to think that banks don't notice when you back off from Kohl's and start hitting the Family Dollar. The credit union I once worked at sure did.
Also, not sure how comfortable I am with the banks getting the population comfortable with GPS tracking, especially always-on. As soon as enough people don't mind, it then becomes a requirement if you want zero-liability.
Right now, the bank is liable if my card is misused, barring lack of ordinary care on my part. I like it that way. I'm willing to inconvenience myself and go to the website to say "I'll be traveling to New Mexico for New Year's". The possibility of a card being declined is among the reasons why I carry cardS from more than one issuer. They won't all get indigestion because I had a bagel in Maine and now I'm having lunch in Pennsylvania, even if I forget to warn them.
This is a solution in search of a problem, or probably more accurately, a Trojan Horse appeal to get more and more of our data wrapped up in a pretty package labeled "for your convenience." BofA is offering me my credit score for free! All I have to do is use their app! Why can I not get this valuable service on the website, hmmmmm?
No, thank you.
You're comment confirms what I've always suspected: that banks try to discern a person's financial situation by watching who they do business with. I'm curious... did the credit union use an automated process to alert them to a person shifting their spending from Kohl's to Family Dollar, or was this a periodic manual review of accounts?
I've written comments on other threads advocating that people close their starter cards from subprime lenders as soon as they get a couple of cards from mainstream lenders. Don't keep those accounts open for AAoA purchases. My argument has been that the banks notice the presence of the subprime lenders on your credit report. Did your credit union pay attention to that, too?
@UpperNwGuy wrote:
@BurgeoningHope wrote:
@CountryLivin wrote:That could be a good thing!
...
Walking past the pawn shop on the way to Whole Foods - entirely possible where I live - what if the bank takes their snapshot while I'm in front of the pawn shop? What if they see that every few days? Will they decide I'm having money problems? Don't laugh - it's naive to think that banks don't notice when you back off from Kohl's and start hitting the Family Dollar. The credit union I once worked at sure did.
...
You're comment confirms what I've always suspected: that banks try to discern a person's financial situation by watching who they do business with. I'm curious... did the credit union use an automated process to alert them to a person shifting their spending from Kohl's to Family Dollar, or was this a periodic manual review of accounts?
I've written comments on other threads advocating that people close their starter cards from subprime lenders as soon as they get a couple of cards from mainstream lenders. Don't keep those accounts open for AAoA purchases. My argument has been that the banks notice the presence of the subprime lenders on your credit report. Did your credit union pay attention to that, too?
I don't know about subprime lenders, as I wasn't in underwriting at all. But once people had their cards, some of their activities would come to my attention as part of my job in reconciling reports and doing manual reviews of such things as bounced ACH transfers, bounced checks, and fraudulent credit card transactions. It was a small credit union and it was 10+ years ago. Larger institutions might be different, and of course AI/big data tools that are commonplace now didn't exist then.
Some of our customers were known to us because they were simply unable to balance their checkbooks. Others because they'd have automated payments in or out that had a single small detail wrong, such as an omitted middle name or transactions posting to a Santa Saver account instead of their regular savings, that sort of thing. Other customers we'd never hear from.
It's when the never-hear-froms start coming to your attention that you begin to wonder why. I was asked to report anything odd or troubling to the loan department, and for truly questionable activity I had the legal requirement to file a SAR.
I can give more detail later. Sorry, a small emergency on my end just came up. But the TL;dr is yes, and to this day I will not use a card at Family Dollar, which is still a terrific place for gift wrap