Do You Use Online Banking?

[DMark]

Question says it all.
And if so, and you are so inclined to comment, how do you like it?
And if not, and you are so inclined to comment, why not?

[Rigamarole]

Of course! Any type of banking that I can do while simultaneously watching porn is automatically better than porn-free banking.

[Shagnasty]

Yes, online banking is about the only way I do it. I have Bank of America which has a pretty good online banking system. Almost all of my bills are set up to be automatically paid and I use www.manilla.com (free and recommended) to let me see all my online account information from many sources in one place. I write maybe 3 checks a year. I wouldn't do it any other way. Once everything is set up properly, you don't have to do much of anything except look at it occasionally for false charges.

[Quartz]

No way. I work in IT and know that it's just too risky. It only takes one piece of malware and that's it.

Besides, the bank's in walking distance anyway.

[DMark]

Answering my own question, I have been using online banking for years and love it. It allows me to see exactly what checks/automatic deposit or withdrawals have cleared. It also allows me to pay a bill and know it will get there in 1-2 days with a confirmation number. No guessing if they got it or forgetting I sent it. I also like that I get most all bills emailed to that account and have an overview of what is due/paid and also not have to worry that I accidentally misplaced a bill and forgot about it.

Lately, it seems when I first log in until the window actually opens, it is taking longer (security measures?), but otherwise, I prefer online banking to the "old way" and appreciate seeing activity immediately.

[Procrustus]

I have used it for years. Key Bank, however, recently revamped their on-line bill pay and it is practically unusable. I'm writing more checks now. :(

Still, I love making transfers on line, and checking my balances, etc. (For example, I can put $50 in my daughter's account from my phone or iPad if she calls in a panic from the mall). I'm looking forward to being able to snap a photo of a check for text deposit.

[Gagundathar]

By OG, I don't know what I would do without it.

Story:
When I was a wee lad, growing up in Clarkston, Georgia, the big town was Decatur.
That was where the hospital was and it was also where the bank was.
I got a savings account when I was 6 years old at the C&S bank (Citizens and Southern... one of the few that came through the Civil War relatively intact).
I had a little booklet that showed my deposits and withdrawals.
It was about as big as my passport is.

I remember when I was making money selling stuff to neighbors or mowing their lawns, I would take that money to the bank every Friday afternoon. When I was very young, my mother would drive me. Later on, I would ride my bicycle down Scott Boulevard. I would deposit my money, and then dutifully record the entry in my passbook. Y'all remember that word? 'Passbook'?

Anyway, along about the early 1970's we got a branch office in my town.
That was amazingly cool, because then I didn't have to ride 35-45 minutes to Decatur to make a deposit. It also allowed me to withdraw funds, because I didn't have a checking account - only a savings account. (Yes, I know I could have withdrawn funds, but when I was a kid, this was sort of like a one way piggy bank that would 'magically' be available some day in the future. And remember, back then the 'future' was magical... moon bases, robots, space stations, jet cars...)

So, being able to almost instantly access my BOA account (who bought the company that bought the company that bought C&S) is pretty doggone cool.

So, yes, I use online banking.
Thanks for asking.

heh heh heh

[Mops]

No way. I work in IT and know that it's just too risky. It only takes one piece of malware and that's it. ...

I use transaction authorization codes (ChipTAN) that are generated with a challenge-response algorithm involving the chip on by bank card with accounts at my local Sparkasse, and mTANs sent to my mobile phone with my Postbank account. So any malware could only intercept credentials (PIN+TAN) that have already been used.

Having used online banking since 1988 (starting in the now-defunct German Bildschirmtext sytem), I have yet to be defrauded of one eurocent.

[Nars Glinley]

Love it. Love it. Love it. I pay all of my bills that way. If the bank is willing to EFT or stuff my checks in envelopes and pay the postage, why not let them? And no, I don't have a monthly balance minimum or pay a monthly fee for the service.

[Windsong]

I recommend online banking to anyone who is a caregiver. It makes a huge difference when one's time is already severely limited.

[Hello Again]

Hate it, loathe it with the fire of a thousand suns. I have an online only HSBC savings account. It really isn't their fault, but it's absolute shite for me.

The security keys are too complicated for me, so I forget them, then I have to call a nice man in Mumbai and go through a 40 minute procedure to change my passwords and keys. Which I immediately forget. End result I have been unable to do the least thing with it in 4 years, without aforesaid 40 minute phone call happening first. Not exactly a time saver. Nor is there any financial advantage: the interest rate is under 1% the last time I checked (the entire reason for opening the account was to get get a better interest rate, which was like 3.8% when I opened it).

I am working up the energy to call the nice people in Mumbai to close my account. It makes me feel tired just talking about it.

[Trom]

Yep. My bank has only a handful of physical branches. The nearest is 2000 miles from me.

[gotpasswords]

No way. I work in IT and know that it's just too risky. It only takes one piece of malware and that's it.

Besides, the bank's in walking distance anyway.
I'm in IT as well, and I use my employer's online banking frequently. What's this malware you speak of? Oh right, it's that stuff people with Windows computers have to deal with. :p

We have a 100% online security guarantee. As long as you don't tell anyone your online ID, password or ATM card PIN, if someone gets at your accounts, and you report it in a timely fashion, it's covered.

It's probably riskier for me to ride the elevator down to the cafeteria where the ATMs are, or worse, walk across to another building where a bank branch is.

[Cat Whisperer]

I have used it for years. Key Bank, however, recently revamped their on-line bill pay and it is practically unusable. <snip>Our bank changed to a new system this summer and screwed us up for a couple of months (including me not being able to take money out just before we left on our summer vacation, and paying our bills twice). It seems to be sorted out now - maybe you just need to be patient with it.

I'm halfway to full online banking - I still get the bills in the mail, but pay them all online.

[DiosaBellissima]

Exclusively.

Ok, that's not true: I have to go to the bank to deposit checks or get cash from the ATM, but all my tracking, transfers, and other things are done online. I love it. I have no idea how people don't check their account online daily-- I've caught a few bank mistakes by just popping on to their website once a day. If I waited for end of the month statements, there'd be all kinds of problems.

[CapnPitt]

Pretty much what everyone else pro-online said. Takes the tedium out of balancing because you can do it more frequently than every month; you can look for discrepancies pretty immediately; no bills get lost and go unpaid; don't have to write many checks.

No worries.

[That Don Guy]

My only gripe with online banking is, I have direct deposit to my savings account, but I have to pay pretty much all of my bills out of my checking account as my bank charges me $10 (and threatens to close my account if I do it three times in 12 months) if I have more than six online transfers from my savings account, including transfers to my checking account.

[Sir T-Cups]

I use it exclusively.

No receipts, no paper trail, no billing (cept online)

[Lukeinva]

Yes. It's great. If I could somehow get cash withdrawals direct from my PC it would be even greater.

[bouv]

Almost exclusively...I pay all my bills except electric, gas, and rent online. So that's car payment, student loan payments, credit card bills, cell phone bill, car insurance...I think that's it.

I use a mixture of my bank's online bill pay system, and the sites for the individual accounts...I suppose it would be easier to centralize everything at my bank's site...I should work on that...but eh, I'm lazy and I've already got the inertia going for me this way, so I doubt I will...

[Rigamarole]

Yes. It's great. If I could somehow get cash withdrawals direct from my PC it would be even greater.

I hear that this is possible using a special type of printer, however it may also draw unwanted attention from the FBI.

[silenus]

All the time. Bill pay, balance checking...between on-line and ATMs I rarely deal with people at my credit union anymore. Which is a pity, because they are nice people.

[Sudden Kestrel]

We don't and won't until we are forced to. We're ornery that way.

[The Great Sun Jester]

I do. Between the US Post Office and the mail rooms of the dozen or so places I pay every month there is just no telling when a payment will be posted to an account. Lets me keep a better eye on my balance as well. Haven't had a negative account balance since I decided to stop writing & mailing checks so I'm winning so far.

I've thought about security, but it'd be trivially easy for some Nigerian punk to grab my mail and get online and raise hell. If you want to screw with my accounts you need to at least be cool enough to build the malware.

[purplehorseshoe]

Hate it, loathe it with the fire of a thousand suns. I have an online only HSBC savings account. It really isn't their fault, but it's absolute shite for me.

The security keys are too complicated for me, so I forget them, then I have to call a nice man in Mumbai and go through a 40 minute procedure to change my passwords and keys. Which I immediately forget. End result I have been unable to do the least thing with it in 4 years, without aforesaid 40 minute phone call happening first. Not exactly a time saver. Nor is there any financial advantage: the interest rate is under 1% the last time I checked (the entire reason for opening the account was to get get a better interest rate, which was like 3.8% when I opened it).

I am working up the energy to call the nice people in Mumbai to close my account. It makes me feel tired just talking about it.

Sweet stumbling Jesus, why don't you write 'em down on a Post-It or something?

[Nars Glinley]

Sweet stumbling Jesus, why don't you write 'em down on a Post-It or something?

Or get KeePass.

[SeaDragonTattoo]

My only gripe with online banking is, I have direct deposit to my savings account, but I have to pay pretty much all of my bills out of my checking account as my bank charges me $10 (and threatens to close my account if I do it three times in 12 months) if I have more than six online transfers from my savings account, including transfers to my checking account.

Why do you do it backwards? I have an automatic transfer set up, with a set amount transferring from checking to savings the day after each payday. No withdrawals from savings at all. Automatic deposit is to checking, since that's where all the transactions happen. Doing it backwards doesn't make sense.

I've been using online banking for probably 10 years. I get one paper bill a year, from my safety deposit box at a different bank. That's pretty much the only check I write. My rent check is sent by the bank and it's the only other mailed item. I have 9 bills a month that are all electronically withdrawn from my account, and man, it's such a timesaver!

I use community banks, so the bells and whistles aren't exactly all there, but PayPal helps make up for that (i.e. transfers via cell number or email), and one of the banks recently released a smartphone app, which is very handy.

[Roderick Femm]

No way. I work in IT and know that it's just too risky. It only takes one piece of malware and that's it.

Besides, the bank's in walking distance anyway.I would be interested in knowing exactly what is at risk with malware - my online bank passwords? I guess that would be enough. They wouldn't find my SS number or anything like that in my bank records. Also, my online banks (I currently have 5, counting credit cards) seem pretty committed to security, most of them have more than just password security.

So can you please elaborate? Whenever I hear claims like this, I think that if it were really as bad as you paint, online banking would virtually disappear.


Roddy

[MannyL]

I have my bi-weekly paycheck go into Savings then I do a transfer of most of it to checking and pay my bills.

The 6 withdrawal limit from a savings account is a Federal rule not the bank or credit union's

And for those wondering why I don't have it go directly to checking well I goofed when I filled out my direct deposit paperwork and to change it they have to stop the direct deposit then re-start it and it can take three to four pay cycles to do.

[Cunctator]

I use online banking for pretty much everything: transfers between my accounts; bill payments; transfers to external parties.

[AHunter3]

Used it since the early 1990s when it was a dial-up service not using HTTP, accessed via their own proprietary dialup software.

And yes I like it.

[brittekland]

I have for at least 10 years and no problem whatsoever so far.

[kferr]

No way. I work in IT and know that it's just too risky. It only takes one piece of malware and that's it.

I work in IT security (I'm a CISSP) and have no problem with online banking. I have accounts in three banks that I've never set foot in.

[Clark Cello]

Of course I do. I am not 84 years old, nor do I live in 1996.

[highrollinwooded]

Online all the way! I only pay 2 bils with a paper check, everything else via online banking! Our paychecks are all direct deposited, with a certain amount going into my personal checking account for the mortgage, and if I need to, I can transfer how ever many times I like with the numerous accounts to shift money, with no charge! I for one am not going back in time, I am embracing technology!!!

[gotpasswords]

I work in IT security (I'm a CISSP) ...
Cool! Another CISSP staggers in. Surprisingly few of us here. :cool:

Ironically, today was that one time per year (or so) where I had to visit an actual bank. So far, we don't allow our customers to print certified checks at home, and I needed some official checks, so off I went to wait in line.