Online Banking - Where do You Start:?ARTICLE: ONLINE BANKING - WHERE DO YOU START? WORDS: 1140 You have permission to use this article for electronic or print distribution provided the credit box at the bottom is attached. A courtesy notice of publication would be appreciated. Thank you Sincerely, Jim Slobodzian * * * * * * * * * * ONLINE BANKING - WHERE DO I START? Are you ready for online banking? Where do you start? Online banking is much, much more than simply punching in your codes at the nearest ATM, and the 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 the "online" world offering all the services "traditional" banks have offered in the past. Getting Started They will guide you through a simple process, setting you up with your account # and password. Guard these carefully! - 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 the banks, they are playing catch-up to some of the services being offered by auction payment systems which in a way have "blazed the trail" for online payments. New e-money currency, "wallets" and payment systems have filled a gap in the 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...". 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, the list keeps growing). · Open a new account I should note that when comparing some of the 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 the coming months. Advantages How Do they Rate? For US Bank Comparisons According to a Consumer Reports (CR) study that will be published in its February 2002 issue, just over one-fifth (22%) of US households are banking online. About 80% of respondents consider online banking "easy and quick," and 60% of e-bankers are concerned that their banks would share personal data. Consumer Reports' top five online banks include, in descending order: E*Trade, Citibank, NetBank, JP Morgan Chase and Bank One. For another comparison of PC/Online banking services and fees by US banks visit Bankrate.com at this URL: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/publ/onlifees.asp For a ranking of top US internet banks in Fall 2001 based on ease of use, customer confidence, on-site resources, relationship services, and overall cost, visit Gomez.com at: For Canadian Bank Ratings A poll done on Canadians by market research firm NFO Cfgroup showed about 24 per cent of adult Canadians have signed up for on-line banking, compared with about 20 per cent who had logged on during the same period a year earlier. About 61 per cent of respondents said they clicked their accounts once a week, while 82 per cent reported using on-line banking at least once a month. The study also found that online banking is less likely to be used for more complicated transactions such as opening accounts, taking out loans or applying for mortgages. View the 2001 Canadian Online Banking Report by Moneysense.ca at: Or for those who wish to do their own research, here are the web addresses for major US and Canadian banks offering online services. Happy banking! US Banks American Bank www.pcbanker.com American Express Centurion Bank www.americanexpress.com/banking Canadian Banks TD Canada Trust www.tdcanadatrust.com Bank of Montreal www.bmo.com Royal Bank www.rbc.com Scotiabank www.scotiabank.ca CIBC www.cibc.com * * * * * * * * * * Copyright © 2002 Enroute.ca All rights reserved. This article courtesy of http://thecashedge.com/. You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain intact. |
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