Tech Tools. Five tech tips to ring in 2015

The New Year is a good opportunity to take advantage of the advancements in technology to save some time, money and worry. Here are some useful tips to get you started.

With banks now charging for ATM use and with long queues at bank counters, 2015 is a good time to make the switch to online or mobile banking.

Besides the advantage of being free in most situations, it allows you to keep track of your account balance and deposits all the time; so, you have a good idea of the state of your finances 24x7. With the advent of immediate payment services (IMPS), there is no need to wait for days for cheques to get cleared; with net banking or mobile payment services, the transaction is either instantaneous or takes a maximum of one day. Internet and mobile banking can also be done anywhere at anytime: you don’t have to step out of your house to send money to a distant relative and can pay your mobile bill within minutes of the due date expiring.

Make use of easily-available tools to organise your financial matters this year.

There are a plethora of free software applications and online calculators that can help you. The applications enable you to do everything from tracking your monthly expenses to determining whether you should switch to another home loan provider to calculating the sum you need to retire.

This is particularly advisable for those who spend freely and want to curtail it. For example, Bankbazaar.com offers an app that gives a graphical representation of your current easy monthly instalment payments vis-à-vis the EMI you’d have to pay if you transferred your loan account, while Royal Bank of Scotland’s calculator is a good place to start; you should also look at Franklin Templeton’s planner to plan your retirement.

And if you want more comprehensive solutions, you can think of using a platform that is paid for, as many of them are backed by a dedicated team of advisors.

An added benefit of the paid-for applications is that some of them allow you to track your balances and activity across multiple bank accounts.

Give some thought to getting the most of the various cloud-based applications and services available on the internet, many of which can help you save money. For example, if you need the latest and best design software available, why take the risk of purchasing a software that could be obsolete within a few months? Many companies are now offering software as a cloud-based service, with a monthly subscription fee.

Making use of this could help you save a tidy packet instead of spending a huge lumpsum on these programmes, many of which cost thousands of rupees.

A second way the cloud can help you save money is by providing you with space to save your documents and bills in e-format. Cloud-based storage using platforms such as Google Drive, Sky Drive and One Drive are good ways to ensure that in case of a failure of your PC, you don’t lose your valuable data. And it’s free! Well, mostly.

It’s better to be safe than sorry, and while transacting online, being doubly safe means you are doubly secure. Most email service providers and even some social networking sites offer the option of using a “two-step authentication” to secure your account. What this does is to sync your mobile phone number to these websites.

Once done, every time you log into a site such as Gmail, you are automatically sent an SMS with an authentication code, similar to the one-time password system used by banks, which has to be entered before you are granted access. What’s more, some websites will notify you if someone accesses your account from a computer that you have not used before and “trusted”.

Registering your mobile is also a good idea in case your account is hacked. You can use your mobile number to prove that the account is yours.

It’s no joke if someone sneaks in a nasty virus onto your computer and uses it to steal all your banking and identity information. Computer security firms have warned that identity theft and internet fraud are some of the fastest rising crimes globally.

So now that you’ve been forewarned, it’s a good time to get forearmed as well. Invest in an anti-virus software, which could shield you in case of a cyber attack. Not just your computer, your mobile phone is also a prime target for data thieves, especially if it gets stolen.

There are applications available — both free, such as COMODO Anti-Theft, as well as for a fee, such as BitDefender — that can remotely lock your phone and wipe it clean of any data.