Mortgage Applications
When you shop for a home in this fast-moving world, timing can be everything to secure your dream home. Getting pre-qualified for a mortgage lets you enter the bidding process positioned as a serious buyer. By completing this short pre-qualification form, your loan officer will communicate the maximum loan amount for which you may qualify based on the information you supply about income, assets, and credit standing. This form is not a full loan application and therefore does not represent a loan commitment to you.
Mortgage Application
After you find the right house or property; it's time to secure financing. Use this application when you're ready to apply for loan approval. You can save an incomplete application and finish it later.
**Please recognize that we are a community bank located in north central Illinois whose lending area is within our specific market areas.
Online Banking
At Hometown National Bank we understand the demands you face each day. Our online banking service provides access to your accounts from any computer with Web access – wherever and whenever you need it.
Online banking from Hometown National Bank is free! Isn’t that what you’d expect from the Bank that’s on your side?
All these great features and more are a few mouse clicks away:
- View account balance information on checking, savings and certificates of deposit
- Transfer funds – move money 24/7, it’s safe and secure
- View balances on your mortgage or installment loan accounts
- Download account activity to Quicken®, QuickBooks® or Microsoft Money®
- View and print images of checks drawn on your account
- Check our current interest rates, product offerings and much more
Take a test drive of Hometown National’s On-Line Banking, click here to start the demonstration
For security information click here.
For Your Security
Hometown National Bank is committed to the protection of our clients’ Privacy by doing everything within our means to shield you from potential scams or fraud. Today the largest growing form of white-collar crime is Identity Theft, which involves using another person’s identifiers typically stolen from your mailbox, lifted from your trash or recycling bin, and various other means.
Another common form of fraud is a technique called “Phishing.” It starts when you receive an e-mail illegally using the name or graphics of a financial institution and requests that you divulge personal data (social security and account numbers). It’s a ploy that the perpetrator attempts to gain access to bank or credit accounts, under the guise of updating or refreshing personal information. Hometown National Bank never contacts customers via e-mail to verify or request security information.
What to Do?
If you believe you have received a fraudulent e-mail or someone is trying to gain access to your personal data, do not reply to the communication. Contact Hometown National Bank’s client service area at 815-223-7300 or 815-207-4664 as soon as possible and alert our experts to the problem.
For more detailed information on “Phishing” and other identity theft scams, we suggest visiting one of these informative Government Web sites:
www.consumer.gov
www.consumer.gov/idtheft
Security Tips
In order to avoid identity theft or other types of fraudulent scams, consider the following:
- Shred any important documents that you intend to discard
- Select PIN numbers that will not be obvious to would-be thieves
- Keep credit card numbers, PIN numbers and any other security codes locked in a file cabinet or in your Hometown National Bank safety deposit box (available at our LaSalle location)
- Never give out account numbers or security data unless you have initiated the contact with the Bank or credit card provider
The privacy of communications between you (your browser) and our servers is ensured via encryption. Encryption scrambles messages exchanged between your browser and our online banking server.
How Encryption Works
- When visiting Hometown National Bank’s sign-on page, your browser establishes a secure session with our server.
- The secure session is established using a protocol called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Encryption. This protocol requires the exchange of what are called public and private keys.
- Keys are random numbers chosen for that session and are only known between your browser and our server. Once keys are exchanged, your browser will use the numbers to scramble ( encrypt) the messages sent between your browser and our server.
- Both sides require the keys because they need to descramble ( decrypt) messages received. The SSL protocol assures privacy, but also ensures no other website can "impersonate" your financial institution's website, nor alter information sent.
To learn whether your browser is in secure mode, look for the secured lock symbol at the bottom of your browser window.
Encryption Level
The numbers used as encryption keys are similar to combination locks. The strength of encryption is based on the number of possible combinations a lock can have. The more possible combinations, the less likely someone could guess the combination to decrypt the message.
For your protection, our servers require the browser to connect at 128-bit encryption (versus the less-secure 40-bit encryption). Users will be unable to access online banking functions at lesser encryption levels. This may require some end users to upgrade their browser to the stronger encryption level.
To determine if your browser supports 128-bit encryption:
- Click "Help" in the toolbar of your Internet browser
- Click on "About [browser name]"
- A pop-up box or window will appear.
- For Internet Explorer: next to "Cipher strength" you should see "128-bit"
- For Netscape: you should see "This version supports high-grade (128-bit) security with RSA Public Key Cryptography"
If your browser does not support 128-bit encryption, you must upgrade to continue to access the website's secure pages. Please read below for browser information.
Firefox and Safari browsers and DI
- Firefox and Safari - Encryption levels
Both browsers recently designated as supported for use with DI products, Firefox 1.0 and Safari 1.2, use strong 128-bit encryption when accessing secure sites, to ensure safe and secure transmittal of private data such as account and payment information.
- Firefox and Safari - How end users can determine which levels of encryption they have
- Firefox - In Firefox, this option is not visible until connected to a site. Negotiation occurs between the client browser and the server at run-time. To view the encryption level being used while connected to a specific secure site, you can do the following:
- Click to the 'Tools' menu
- Select 'Page Info'
- Click the 'Security' tab
- Or: double-click the yellow 'lock' icon in the lower right corner of the screen while connected to a secure site.
- Safari - The Safari browser displays a 'lock' icon at the top right corner of the browser window when you're viewing a secure (https://) site. This symbol is absent when viewing an unsecured (http://) site. Safari can use both 40-bit and 128-bit "strong" encryption; the website determines which level of encryption is used at a given time.
Other browsers that support 128-bit encryption also may work. More information on some common browsers is available via these links:
- Netscape - http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/
- Microsoft Internet Explorer - www.microsoft.com.windows/ie/default.mspx
- Firefox - www.mozilla.org/products/firefox
- Safari - www.apple.com/macosx/features/safari
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