Good Morning Green Panda Readers! Today we are going to discuss the advantages of Online Banking. This is the second post in our Fun Financial Tools for Twenty Somethings series. In case you missed the first post about The Advantages and Benefits of Online Shopping please Click Here.
Online Banking Offers Convenience
There are several advantages of Online Banking, and the major advantage being Convenience. No matter where we are, what we are doing, or who we are with as long as we have an internet connection we can access our online banking from our personal computer, laptop, and cell phone. I love the fact that I can pay bills, transfer funds, and check my account balances from absolutely anywhere at absolutely any time.
Last summer while I was travelling in Spain I logged into my Online Banking to make sure that my automatic payroll was deposited into my bank account. Even on a different continent I was able to log into my secure Online Banking to process transactions and view my updated account balances. The convenience of Online Banking allowed me to continue to pay my bills on time even though I was on vacation in another country.
Online Banking Offers Easy Record Keeping Options
Easy and Convenient Record Keeping Options are another major advantage of Online Banking. When we log onto our secure Online Banking we are able to view all of our accounts together at the same time on our home page.
If we click on each individual account from our Online Banking homepage we can obtain detailed account information including up to date transactions and previous account statements. Having online access to our account statements is a major advantage of Online Banking because it saves us both time and money. If we need an old account statement and request it from our financial institution the processing costs could be very high. Very often our financial institution will charge us for the actual statement as well as an hourly rate for the research involved in retrieving that account statement. Online Banking is definitely an easier record keeping option.
Online Banking Offers Added Security
Online Banking Security is another major advantage of Online Banking. I have added Online Banking into my daily morning routine. Every morning after I wake up but before I take my shower I check the balance of my checking and savings accounts. Some people (especially my boyfriend) think that this is absolute obsessive-compulsive behaviour. But I can’t help it. I like to make sure that all of my transactions are legit and that there is no risk of possible fraud in any of my accounts.
I don’t have the world’s greatest memory and therefore I need to check my transactions every day before I forget. Sometimes I even forget transactions that I made the day before; in the past I have reported fraudulent transactions in error due to lack of memory. Now to avoid this mistake I keep my sales receipts and cross reference them with my daily transactions for added security.
I receive all of my account statements through Online Banking. This is an added security advantage of Online Banking because it eliminates the potential fraud risk of confidential information being lost in the mail.
It is important to remember that Online Banking is only as secure as our internet connection. It is a good idea for security to have an anti virus program as well as a firewall on your laptop or personal desktop computer. It is also not advised to log on to our Online Banking while we have other sharing and networking sites open on our computer. If you are logged into Facebook, do not log onto your Online Banking.
Tahnya is 30 years old and lives in Montreal Quebec. She graduated in 2005 from Concordia University, and she currently works for a major International Financial Institution. She recently launched http://www.mediamadam.ca/. You can follow her on Twitter @TahnyaP.