ONLINE BANKING ¡V WHERE DO I START?Are you ready for online banking? Or a better question ¡V are
banks ready for you?
Online banking is much, much more than simply punching in your codes at nearest ATM, and breadth of services available to you are growing fast. In fact, some banks do not have branches located in brick buildings at all, but are operating competitively in ¡§online¡¨ world offering all services ¡§traditional¡¨ banks have offered in past.
Getting Started So, what should you consider before making leap in to cyber-banking? Probably first thing to consider is whether you have ¡§connections¡¨. The simplest online connection you need is dial-up internet access from your computer. With this, you are now able to make a connection with your existing bank or surf other banks to open an account, request a loan, etc. If you have an existing bank account, many banks are making it easy for you to ¡§enable¡¨ online access to your accounts. Check with your bank, process of getting online access to your existing accounts is fairly easy ¡V and you should be able to do this online. (Note: When converting my existing account to online banking at RBC process wouldn¡¦t let me do it online. I had to call in to their office during business hours, but process was fairly simple and telephone support was very good.)
They will guide you through a simple process, setting you up with your account # and password. Guard these carefully! ¡V they are just as important as your ATM PIN #¡¦s.
What Can Online Banking Do For Me?
The services available to you are growing monthly. To be fair to banks, they are playing catch-up to some of services being offered by auction payment systems which in a way have ¡§blazed trail¡¨ for online payments. New e-money currency, ¡§wallets¡¨ and payment systems have filled a gap in market place that banks are looking to recover. The ones that really want your business won¡¦t make it difficult for you to do business with them. As we all know, nothing is more frustrating than spending your time and energy trying to use your bank¡¦s ¡§online¡¨ services only to find that an hour later you see a message saying ¡§please visit your nearest branch to¡K.¡¨.
So what should you expect? Here is a list of basic services that I believe you should be able to expect from your online bank (and of course, list keeps growing).
„h Open a new account „h Check credit card balances „h Check your mortgage balances „h Make bill payments „h Schedule automatic bill payments for regular bills „h Make credit card bill payments „h Apply for a loan „h Apply for a mortgage „h Transfer funds between accounts „h Ability to send and receive checks online „h Check your brokerage account and trade stocks or mutual funds (integrated) „h Wireless banking access
I should note that when comparing some of services offered by US banks vs. Canadian banks, it appears that Canadian banks are slower to offer important basic online services such as sending and receiving checks and payments. Hopefully they will catch up in coming months.
Advantages The advantages of convenience and speed for online banking are obvious. You have ability to do your business when it is most convenient to you, at any time of day with no line-ups and no waiting. Transactions are most often executed and confirmed instantly or during next business day. And of course, with increased competition that comes with consumers having more knowledge and easier access to competitors, price differences are worth comparing. For certain basic services ¡§virtual¡¨ banks that only operate online have better rates as compared against some of traditional institutions that have to maintain their branches and buildings.
