You can take a walk down memory lane, assuming you haven’t deleted any of your old emails. Or you can find that work contact that you haven’t talked to in years and reach out to them again.
However, in the age of cybercrime, when data leaks involving your passwords, email addresses and even Social Security number happen more often than birthdays, an old email address also can be a weak point in your personal security.
You probably aren’t too worried about your family reunion photos getting compromised. But most people link financial accounts and other sensitive information to their email accounts as well.
The idea of a criminal hacking into your financial accounts because your email and password exist on the dark web isn’t comfortable. Is there a good workaround or solution?
Should I Create a Separate Email Address for My Financial Accounts?
Should I create an email address that I only ever use for my financial accounts? And should it be through one of the email providers known for safety and data protection?
That’s what a recent Clark Howard listener asked.
Asked Steph in New Mexico: “Would it be worthwhile to create another email to use exclusively for my financial websites (bank, brokerage account, etc.)?
"I've been using my current email for years for everything. I've just started to use the DuckDuckGo.com email, but I'm not sure about using it as my main email for financial accounts."
There are multiple email providers that market themselves based on the security and privacy they offer their users. (Shocking: Gmail and Outlook aren’t on those lists. Sorry Google and Microsoft.)
You can do your own research to discover those options, but here are a couple of examples breaking them down.
Simply opening up a new email address that isn’t linked to anything, and never using it a single time to sign up for an account, email a friend, tie it to your cell phone bill or anything outside of financial accounts should reduce your risk at least to a degree.
“I love the idea of you using an alternative email. Proton Mail. DuckDuckGo. Anything other than your primary email,” Clark says. “Cordoned off for your financial sites.
“That is really, really smart. Because we tend to be creatures of habit. We develop habits in how we come up with passwords. The idea of taking your bank, brokerage and retirement account and putting it in with its own email address, I think that’s a really great concept.”
Team Clark is a fan of DuckDuckGo as a Google alternative for search and email. Especially if you care about protecting your data and privacy.
“DuckDuckGo is such a great search engine because they’re not spying on you all the time,” Clark says. “They’re getting better and better at the algorithm of results for search. And now they’ve got email where they’re not spying on you. I love that.”
Final Thoughts
Want a little extra peace of mind and protection from financial criminals? Consider opening up a new email account that you never link to anything but your financial accounts.
And if you open said account via Proton Mail, DuckDuckGo or another secure email provider, even better.
The post Should I Create Another Email Address To Use for My Financial Accounts? appeared first on Clark Howard.