Internet Banking

Welcome to a new era in banking. Internet Banking.  It is the next revolution in banking. Soon you will forget that a bank physically exists.  You want to pay your bills? Write checks? No problem.  Just switch on your PC and your private virtual bank branch is right there as if it is waiting for you with open arms  - oh! What a relief from the regular dirty and muggy banks.

What makes Internet banking such a revolutionary concept?  It is about convenience. It is about banking at your own sweet time and pace. In other words bank anytime anywhere - even in the middle of the Indian Ocean. 

Hey tell me one thing – do you want to bank with a bank babu making faces with paan all over his face and waiting till eternity for his peon to get him ek pyaala chai with you cooling your heels under standing under an out of order fan? Or would you prefer a beautiful sophisticated woman (or a well-groomed man) as your personal financial assistant? Have a look below and answer with your heart in the right place.
 

The babu you hate to see

Your financial assistant you die to meet

I would prefer the latter anyday. And I assume that you would too. 

What all can I do through my internet PC branch?
Well you can do practically anything that does not involve cash. (But soon that problem shall be resolved too- there is this thing called cybercash – coming soon to a PC near you. More about that in a later article). You can see what your balance is each day (or whenever you care to). You can write checks to pay your bills to your utilities company or any individual. You can transfer funds between linked accounts. You can ask for stop payments on your checks. You can even open new accounts!! All from the comfort of your desk (or lap or palm)top PC. And as I said – anytime, anywhere.

Is it difficult? 
No. Believe me it is easier than going to the regular bank and doing your transactions there. 

Do I need to know a lot about computers and other technical stuff that I can never comprehend? 
Of course not.  (look at me – I know you can’t look at me but… )
All you need to know is what you already know. You should know how to play with your mouse and it is all a matter of a few clicks here and there and you can do transactions worth millions – you do not even need to know your math. You can have an online calculator doing all that number crunching for you.

OK – but what should I have in order to do all this?
The obvious are you should have a PC and an Internet account. Other than that you should choose a bank that provides banking services online. Most of the banks in the western world provide these services online. In India there are only a few that provide a full range of online banking services. But that should improve within the next few years. Hopefully.

Is all this secure?
You will agree that when it involves finances security is the foremost concern. Aakhir paise ka sawal hai. 
Most of the banks have taken care of that with a technology called SSL encryption or through a secure server. SSL is Secured Sockets Layer. The data transimtted to and from your computer and the bank’s computer is encrypted - the unscrambling of which is extremely difficult. So you can rest assured that you will not lose sleep over that. But a word of caution here – never transmit financial or other data like your credit card number over the internet unless you are doing so through a secure site. In most browsers, a small lock appears on the status bar indicating that you are accessing a secure site.

What does it cost?
Most provide free online viewing of accounts and funds transfer.  Some banks charge a small amount for premium services like check writing. 

So when can I start? 
I told you – Internet banking is all about banking anytime, anywhere.

A few Indian banks that provide online services are –
ICICI – Infinity banking
Citibank
Indusind
State Bank of India
TimesBank

Others have their web-sites in place but no banking is available.

Out of these I liked the citibank site the most.  It is informative.  It has more online services than any other bank in India.  Apart from that the cool animation and the helpful lady really makes me want to… bank.

Though we do have some banks providing Internet banking services for Indians, we really do not have much choice when it comes to choosing our bank online. In the western world almost all banks provide Internet banking facilities to their customers.  We do hope that our banks wake up to the revolution that is Internet banking or else they will lose behind in the race with foreign banks.

Happy Internet Banking !!