With all the attention online banking has received in the last couple of years, it seems there are new online banks popping up everywhere. Users are choosing online banking for its ease and convenience. And while issues of identity theft are important factors to consider with online banking, it has not stopped people from utilizing the Web to streamline their finances.
Even more importantly, recent studies suggest that Internet banking doesn’t just make life easier, customers who choose it seem to be more satisfied with their bank. The two areas of greatest satisfaction fall in the categories of the convenience online banking provides and the ability to pay bills online. One recent industry report indicated that satisfaction with online banking services is up 5.5 percent. The report also shows that users who pay their bills online experience not only satisfaction with the ability to bank online, but with their specific banking institution, suggesting users have strong confidence in their bank’s ability to secure identity. In fact, similar reports have also shown that those who pay bills online retain their business longer at a particular bank than those who do not use a bank’s online service.
As a result, banks are seeing tremendous growth in online service. One major commercial bank cited that in 2004, there were 3.4 million customers paying bills online, followed by an increase to 6 million online bill payers just a year later. Many bankers believe those kinds of increases are the result of services such as online bill pay that customers find most appealing.
Many first-time users come to online banking to access their account information such as account balances and check activity. That is followed by the ability to transfer funds between accounts. And finally, many users then move into online bill pay. Perhaps they start with paying a few utilities online at the utility’s website. They may then look into the online bill pay service offered by their bank. Now, banks are seeing more and more users receiving bills electronically.
Yet for some bank customers, concerns about identity theft keep them from trying online banking. Interestingly, their counterparts who do use the Internet to conduct banking do not seem to hold those same perceptions. Most are satisfied with the level of online security offered by their banks. The challenge then for banks lies in the continued education of their customers to try online banking and discover for themselves the high level of security in place at most banks. Once those customers give online banking a try, perceptions of risk seem to decrease, reports indicate. Surprisingly, these same reports discovered that today’s security measures put in place by PC users and banks have many ID thieves targeting potential victims offline.
The following are a few tips to consider when choosing an Internet bank account:
1. The Annual Percentage Yield (APR) may be higher with Internet bank accounts, and therefore one of the most important attractions for those looking for a high yield. Conducting transactions online may save the bank money, and those savings may then be passed on to the online customer, most often in the form of higher savings rates.
2. Ability to access money. Online users need to consider what steps are involved in accessing their money in an online account.
3. Ability to link accounts. Users want the ability to link various accounts to one another, making it easy to move money seamlessly between online bank accounts.
4. What types of additional services are available? Potential users should be interested in not only banking online, but purchasing CDs, applying for a mortgage, and paying bills online.
5. Security. Users must confirm that their online bank is FDIC insured and that the security system can be trusted.
6. Ability to set up automatic savings account. There’s no reason not to save today with an online account that electronically deposits money into a savings or money market account.
Watch the video related to online bank
26 July 2007, Channel 7’s Today Tonight program aired on Australian television, covers the story of an online / internet banking fraud victim with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. For full updates on the story visit the website astranet.com.au
Help answer the question aboutonline bank
What is a good online bank I can open a college savings plan through?I would like to open a college account, with applicable tax benefits, if possible, through an online bank to put $ in a MMA or CDs (this is to supplement our 529 for our oldest child). Where is a good online bank to do so?
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
doesn’t matter man
they delete accounts which aren’t used for 3 months that still have lots of money in it
why would they do that?
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
fuck baks,how are we supposed to trust this assholes like this!!!
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
Oh C’mon man after several months he couldn’t see that more than 100 000USD was stolen from his account ???
AArrgg I get really pissed how simple and unresponsible some people are!!! He should go back to his mum’s and learn to check his account reguraly!
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
fuk commonwealth they stole it through the fees
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
Just one other thing, surely the bank knows the acounts the money was transferred to…. so they can chase it up and identify the culprits, something not right there, you don’t get cash out of your account online, so where has it gone – they know where it went… sound dodgey – could be the staff… and then blaming Internet fraud!!!!
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
PINsentry is the answer, where you have your own gadget when you want to bank online you have to put your card into type in your pin and it gives you a six figure pin to use just the once, you have to get a new number everytime. I try not to online bank unless I have to and I check my account at least twice a month, and I leave no more that $1,000 in it, anymore than that is put into saving certificates. There are ways of combatting this, don’t leave too much in the acocunt, check it regularly!
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
Thanks 4 the valuable info.
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
My account was hacked into.. I lost a bit of money. Right now, an investigation is carried out. The Police reckon someone local in my area is responsible.
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
Online banking is only as secure as computer you’re accessing your on-line account with. Looking at friends and colleagues computers and their general computer behaviour, I can see why this is such an issue. The bank really needs to provide you with a computer that does nothing else by on-line banking, that way it won’t get lots of nasty crap loaded onto it.
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
Online banking is a bigger term than simply online bill pay. There are several ways your bank can pay your payee – one is that they simply mail a check. The other, if they do a lot of business with the payee, is to simply make an electronic payment (ACH) to your payee – usually places like your electric company. Another way, if the payee banks at the same bank, is to simply deposit money to the payee's account at the bank.
Any of these cost the bank no more than if you had written a paper check or had initiated an ACH/wire transfer and in some cases, costs them less.
Some banks offer these services for free, others don't. One of my banks charges me about $0.65 to send a check from the bank but doesn't charge me to electronically pay someone. Another of my banks charges nothing to send a check but they don't like doing an ACH so they charge me for that.
In the long run, nothing at a bank is free – it will be paid for somehow. Usually with banking fees.
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
Any bank that has weathered the current financial storm is safe to invest in. Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, to give you a couple of examples.
Now, when we looked into savings for our children, we decided not to go with a college savings plan; the reason is that if one of our children either gets a full scholarship, joins the armed forces, or whatever else, the money saved would not be used, and by trying to use it on anything else it would be hit with so many penalties that it would be like we never invested the cash in the first place.
We decided instead to research a medium risk mutual fund, and have one for each of our kids. As they get closer to college age, we'll probably shift the capital into a low risk fund, but this way, they have money saved up for school if needed, or for whatever else if they don't.
Good luck.
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
wire transfer for a cost of about 20 dollars!!!
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
Check out http://www.igoonlinebanking.com you can read about there different services and if your interested sign up with them. Their online savings account has high interest rates and only require one dollar in the account at all times. I don't believe they charge a monthly fee.
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
That's not something that you can do on your own. If you call in and speak with the Online Banking Department they can add those account to your Overview for you.
Hope this helps!
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
Most banks only offer the ability to receive and view statements online at the credit card companies website. I haven't seen very many companies that offer email statements. Viewing a statement online is more secure because your information is more protected online than it is in an email.
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
no, you will have to use your bank.
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
If you are in Chexsystems, you cannot open a bank account. Pay off whatever bounced checks, overdrafts, whatever, plus all the interest, fees, penalties. Within a few months, you will be out of the system and can open another account somewhere.
October 6th, 2009 on 7:19 am
It can take up to 5 business days.