Online Banking

Over recent years the way in which people check their bank account and transfer their money has become more reliant on the use of technology and  they are using online banking rather that physically going into a bank. And there is a multiple option which enables you to pick the one that is best suited to you.

• First Direct
• Egg
• ING Direct
• Rabo Direct

These would be the selection that you would be able to chose from, personally i have not used any of these but i would do a bit of research on each of them to find out which one is best suited to me and i would also take into consideration which one i think would be the most safe and the one i would trust the most.


There are advantages of doing your banking online, these would include:

• Convenience - You are able to do your banking at a time that suits you, and you don't have to have restricted times of when you do your banking.
• Efficiency - When you make the transactions online it is immediate whereas if you were do this by going to your bank physically it would not be as efficient and the transaction would not be made immediately.
• No travel cost - As you will be doing this from the comfort of your own home you wont have to spend money on travel or fuel cost.
• No queuing - As well as the above reasons this can be seen as a huge advantage as it can be done at an even quicker pace as you wont have to wait in a queue and multiple people can be doing the same thing as you.
• Easy to find information - You will also be able to find out specific information that you want more or less immediately as there will be a search bar and the answers to your question will appear without having to explain your question over and over to a member of staff.
• No language barrier - If English is not your first language it might become a better option to do banking online as it will be a big advantage for you.
• Check from abroard - As your bank details will be online you would be able to check your bank account even if you are in a different country which will be the most useful advantage if you find yourself traveling a lot.

However there are disadvantages to banking online which would include:

• Security issues - As you are online there are security issues and when dealing with such personal data and information and you might not be as safe as you would like to be especially not in comparison to doing your banking in the bank.
• Difficulty using site - There are some people that would prefer to do their banking in a physical bank rather that online as they are unable to use the site and find it difficult to do what other people may think to be simple tasks.
• Hackers - This can be seen as a huge disadvantage and can even be a common factor of why people do not want to do banking online as if your personal information gets into the wrong hands it may be extremely hard to rectify .
• Errors - As this is a relatively new way of using technology there are people who do not know quite how to use the site and because of this there is a high risk of making errors, especially when entereing data and when you make errors when using this online service the errors can be hard to rectify.   
• Digital Divide - Because of the digital divide there are people who just do not trust online banking as they are entering personal information that they would rather give face-to-face.

As well as there being advantages for the customers there are also ones for the bank itself which would consist of:

• Save money - As they are not in need of as many employees as more and more people are using the online bank more they will not have to spend so much on paying their workers.
• Wider customer base - As they are going online there will be an opportunity to appeal to a wider range of customers as there are people that prefer doing things online, whether it be because they don't like face-to-face communication or whether they physically cant get to the bank.
• Cut down on brick - As there are more and more people banking online instead there is a less need to have a physical building and they would be able to cut down, especially on the ones that are not as popular and just keep the ones that have more of a customer base.

Disadvantages for the bank would consist of:

• Errors - As well as online there are risks of error making in the bank and if these errors are to happen it is the banks fault and this could sway the customers opinion of the bank and they could then decide to do online banking instead or even take a more drastic action and transfer to another bank.
• Digital Divide - As well as being an disadvantage for the customers this is also a disadvantage for the bank as the bank will get fewer customers as they are unable to use the technology.
• No relationship with the customers - This can be seen as a huge disadvantage as you would not get a sense of loyalty.

In my opinion i think online banking is a great way of banking and a great use of technology as it appeals to a wider range of people and i would be more likely to use the online banking more as i'd prefer to not have to depend on a member of staff to enter my details. As well as this, i'd also prefer to do online banking as i would be able to do it whenever i wish and not have to worry about opening and closing times.

Banks are always making improvements that they think will be a hit with their forever expanding customer base. One of the most improvement being: the PINsentry which is a dedicated entry level to your bank account which gives you a unique pin number to enter upon inserting your barclays bank card into a small numeric keypad. This is part of a dedicated teams effort into being it out solutions for a lot of people concern in computer hacking. this was introduced by barclays but other banks have adopted this idea in improving their own customer security and peace of mind.