(CONSUMER REPORTS) – From groceries to gas, more people are tapping their phones instead of swiping cards to pay. But what happens if that phone goes missing or falls into the wrong hands? Consumer Reports tells you how to protect your money when using a digital wallet.<\/p>\n
Digital wallets are fast, convenient, and increasingly common. But not everyone is on board. And while opinions differ, there\u2019s no question digital wallets are catching on. A 2024 Consumer Reports nationally representative survey found that about 75 percent of Americans have used digital wallets; of those, about 4 in 10 use one every week. <\/p>\n
But that convenience may come with risks\u2014if someone gets into your digital wallet, they can access your money in seconds. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to add every layer of protection you can.<\/p>\n
Consumer Reports says make sure your digital wallet is locked. Set it so you need a face scan, fingerprint, or passcode to make a payment. Not all apps do this by default, so you may need to turn that feature on. <\/p>\n
If your phone goes missing, make sure it can be found remotely so you can erase all your data before someone else gets to it.<\/p>\n
On an iPhone, go to Settings, tap your name, then Find My, and make sure Find My iPhone is on. On an Android phone, it\u2019s called Find My Device. You sign in with your Google account, and it\u2019s enabled automatically.<\/p>\n
Watch out for scams, they\u2019re on the rise. Scams involving digital wallet payment apps have become a serious problem. Some consumers have lost thousands of dollars, so it\u2019s important to stay vigilant to avoid becoming a victim.<\/p>\n
To lower your risk, turn on transaction alerts for every purchase and make it a habit to check your bank and card balances regularly. That way, you can immediately catch anything unusual and protect your money. <\/p>\n
Consumer Reports also recommends setting up recurring payments through your bank – not a digital wallet. If there\u2019s an issue with the app, you could miss a payment and get hit with late fees.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 Consumer Reports. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(CONSUMER REPORTS) – From groceries to gas, more people are tapping their phones instead of swiping cards to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[9,4302,18,19,17,21189,21187,21186,279,21188,21190,82,21185],"class_list":{"0":"post-41940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breaking-news-video","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-live-speeches","14":"tag-live-updates","15":"tag-live-video","16":"tag-mobile","17":"tag-press-conference","18":"tag-real-time-coverage","19":"tag-technology","20":"tag-video-updates"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}