Online Banking is relatively new, even for a person like me who has been working online for many years. I have been an internet user since before the advent of the World Wide Web. I have done shopping on the internet for years. I was always comfortable with that. After all, paying by credit cards always had a certain amount of anti-fraud measures built in. Credit card companies ventured into the online world before the average consumer bank did. I have been into online banking for almost a year now. I am probably, even though it seems late to me, one of the early ones. I personally do not know other people who are using online banking.

I like online banking, because I can easily check my bank balances. I can verify deposits that were made, check if checks have cleared anytime of the day or night. Online banking allows me to transfer money via the internet from my checking account to my savings account (and vice-versa) quickly and easily. And now, I can also use online banking to initiate automatic payments via the internet.

That was probably the most difficult realm of online banking for me to enter into. After all, if there was an error, this was money coming from my checking account. Unlike a credit card, that has a 30 day grace period usually to straighten out any problems, if there is a problem with my checking account, checks will bounce, and my debit card will stop working when I attempt to buy gas or groceries. That scenario alone caused me to hesitate before entering into the realm of online bill paying and online banking.

However, I have started to use this online bill paying feature of internet banking, and I must say that so far, I have been very pleasantly surprised. I take the time to set up a bill to be paid – for example, the rent or mortgage payment. Every month, that payment is the same. It was the best first candidate for my online banking trial into bill paying. I set it up, and I can choose if I want the bill to be paid automatically, or if I still need to manually click and authorize the payment first. If I set it up to be paid automatically, I do not need to worry that the payment will be late. What is cool is that once set up, I never need to write a check, or put a stamp on that payment. It saves me time and money.

I like knowing that I access to my online banking account 24 hours a day and that I can balance my checkbook and pay bills at 10 o’clock at night if I want to. No more rushing to get to the bank on time with the convenience of online banking.

[tags]online banking, banking websites, secure banking online, computer banking how to[/tags]