Virginia National Bank is here to be YOUR forever bank and keep you informed of the best banking options for your needs, how to save, learn about fraud prevention, how we support our communities, financial education, and much more.
Virginia National Bank, "It's all about people ... and always will be."
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
0:00
|
6:18
Mobile Apps are a convenient way to keep you linked to the things that are important, like your bank account, but they also keep you linked to things that are quietly and systematically taking your money every month.
Does this sound familiar? You probably have an app on your phone right now that is charging you for something that you haven’t used in months. This is a friendly reminder to cancel that subscription.
Meghan Crider, President of Educational Programs at VNB, talks with Sherry Taylor of VNB about the “App Trap”. Listen in and learn tips on how to avoid the “App Trap” with unintentional costs to your bottom line.
We are talking apps today. The good, the bad, and the what can we do to slow ourselves down when it comes to spending money and getting caught up in the app game. And Megan Kreider, who is our president of educational programs and in charge of that amazing finance, career, and leadership academy, is here. Megan, let's talk about apps.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, well, let's just focus basically on how mobile apps can hurt your wallet. Oh. Yeah. So I mean mobile apps are designed to make life easier in themselves, they're not like, you know, uh evil in themselves. But when it comes to money, easy can sometimes just work against us. Yep. And the biggest risk is that apps remove the natural, you know, that pause we used to have before spending. Aha, that's very true. Yeah. So they remove that friction from spending. So that you know, that one click paying makes spending almost like invisible. When your card is already saved, you know, there is no real moment to stop and ask, do I actually need this?
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you don't have to go and get your credit card out of your wallet. It's right there, and you double click with your smile.
SPEAKER_01
Right. And you pay. I mean I do that with Amazon all the time. And not sitting there going, I have to order one thing, and my my credit card is scored, is is is is what's saved on the thing, right? And um so I immediately, you know, say, I need that, so I'm getting that, and then I say, Ooh, I would want that. Well, if I add that on, you know, get free shipping, because I don't have prime because I don't pay for that extra subscription every month. Right. And then I'll click it. And then there's money I did for something I didn't really need, but I, you know, have that impulse buying. Oh. And it's so easy with an app. It's so easy. Yes. And you know those subscriptions can just pile up on you. You know, a few dollars here and there may not feel like much, but forgotten monthly charges can slowly drain your account. Yes, absolutely. Um we were talking about that the other day, you and I, about our um car wash ones, you know. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, which I still haven't canceled. You were saying like you just canceled yours, and I'm like, Yes, I need to do that. That's right. Which I haven't done yet. Thank you for the reminder.
SPEAKER_01
No, and if you play games too, like you know, I have you know, children and grandchildren, that in-game currency disconnects us from real money when you do that. People playing, we were at a restaurant the other day with a uh young boy, little boy, he's ten, his parents gave him the ability to play a game, and he just kept spinning and spinning. Well, that was real money. But from him he has no idea. And I'm hopefully his parents put like a you know stopper on it. But you know, those tokens, gems, coins, and credits can make spending feel like a game instead of actual purchase. That's a good point. Never thought about it that way. Also, that buy now, pay later sort of thing can make purchases feel smaller when than they are. Splitting payments may seem helpful, but it may encourage people to buy things they would not choose if they had to pay the full amount at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, that's very that's very true. And you don't have that. I know you and I have talked about waiting. Uh you and I like to put things in our cart and then wait 24 hours and say, Do we really want this? Right. And usually after the 24 hours, I'm like, no, I don't need that or I don't want that. But you're exactly right. With that just easy pay, um, everything is just at your fingertips. You don't get your 24 hours. Right, right.
SPEAKER_01
And also make that decision. But I did w the two is the fact is when it says, here's the total amount, but you can make it into this many simple, easy payments. Oh, yeah. And you're saying, Oh, I'm not really spending the $300, I'm just paying the $29.99 for a really long time. Yes. That's a good point. And not only that, but apps can create storage risks, you know, um storage and security risks, the idea of storing your your um money in sitting in a payment app to uh may not have the same protection as, say, money in a bank does. Right. Uh so if you if you get involved with a scammer or something like that, it's not easy when you have an app to be able to get that money stop payment made, or you know, so it can cost you money there too. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00
So what is your advice for people if if you have like my phone, I have so many apps, right? And and I have run out of storage and they keep wanting me to buy uh, you know, more storage. Apple wants me to buy more storage for that in your photos, yeah. Yeah, for that in your photos. So so what is your advice to somebody who finds themselves just conveniently using apps all the time? What should we do?
SPEAKER_01
Well, I put speed bumps into your spending. You know, basically you remove saved carbs from shopping apps and browsers. Um so if you have to type in your card number, right, you that kind of builds in a pause instead of having it stored. Uh and that can protect your budget. Uh you can turn off biometric purchasing too. So your face ID, that touch ID thing, and fingerprint payments are convenient, but they can make impulse spending just way too easy.
SPEAKER_00
Ah, okay.
SPEAKER_01
So turn those off. Yeah. And just require a password for app store purchases. This is especially useful, like for families or anyone who wants an extra layer of intention before downloading or buying it type of thing. All right, so put something in your way. Yeah, keep on, slow yourself down. You know, I mean i i you know, if you have to do it like that, as opposed to just self-discipline and say, I'm not gonna purchase something like put it in your shopping cart for 24 hours and coming back. Well, don't have your credit card stored. Make it so you slow yourself down by you actually have to plug those numbers in, and that might keep you from doing an impulse buying.
SPEAKER_00
And one last thing, Megan, before we go. So you say we should set reminders. Why should we do that?
SPEAKER_01
I would set myself a reminder. So sometimes you'll signed up for those trial signups where you get like 30 days free. Sometimes you mean every day? Yeah.
unknown
Right.
SPEAKER_01
So you can use like a dedicated, you know, secondary email for those temporary free tri trials so that you and and send up set up notifications so that you remind yourself to turn them off. Ah. Okay, like with Prime. You know, you sign up for Prime, and you've got your credit card stored on there. They're instantly gonna just start charging us. I've done that at Christmas time where I sign up, they give you some 30 days free, and I sign up for for it to get it the one-day type of turnaround. Oh, yeah. But I always send sent in my calendar, in my calendar, you know, writer, turn it off. And they don't make it easy, so give yourself at least two days to figure out how to navigate the site or the app to be able to turn the thing off.
SPEAKER_00
Yes, and Megan, if you can be caught up in that, anybody can get caught up in that. That's very true. All right, thank you, Megan. You're welcome.
