Banking

Online banking

Had bank trouble in the past? Lost some money in the bank unnoticed? Then online banking is the way forward for you.  Internet access is steadily increasing, internet banking has emerged. Internet banking has changed the banking industry and is now considered as a good link with their customers to from a better relationship.

Online banking was introduced in the 1980’s.However in 1994 Stanford Federal Credit Union was the first bank to offer online internet banking services.Internet banking allows customers to control their financial transactions on a website via online.  Online banking has now become much more common; you can access your account quickly and check your records and past transactions. As soon as you have logged in, the online banking site would give you guidance and help on how to navigate around, all sites are customer friendly. And if there are any problems with the site or anything like that, then you can just easily contact the bank to talk to them about it and ask for help.  Online banking makes everything so simple with what you do financially; you can access it anywhere if there is an internet.  Whether you’re just checking your account and reading some information about it, or even making payments. Instead of going to your local bank, you can now do this with just one click on your mouse.  It makes your financial life much simpler to manage.

Online banking is gaining more audience everyday as customers now sees or recognises its full potential and its advantages. There are many banks today that have their own high street branches and also have online services such as HSBC. HSBC is one of the biggest banks not just in the UK but also in Europe. Now there are also banks that are purely online which means that they do not have street branches, one example of this is EGG.EGG banking specialises in savings, credit cards and general insurance but they no longer offers loans or mortgage products.

Advantages to the customers

• One of the main features of online banking is that you can pay anything online, pay your bills etc in the comfort of your own home.
• You can also view your previous transactions; you can check your account history. This is the quickest way of checking your account and looking after it.
• You can also see if there is any unauthorized transaction quickly and therefore you can report about it faster and actions can be taken faster. 
• You can transfer money via online; it’s effective, convenient, efficient and faster.  Because of lower overhead costs, online banks are able to offer more or better rate of interest.

Advantages to the Bank itself

• Banks having online banking also attracts more costumers, and maybe the banks itself may gain more profit.
•  It will make their bank more popular and boost its appearance and trust worthiness.
•  Having online banks also mean that the bank company is expanding its business and its target audience by being used worldwide.
• Some are purely working just online therefore there is no need to buy a land or build your own building etc, you don’t need many employees as normal bank would need therefore this will save more money.
• Annoying mails coming through your doors are also out as online banking will only send emails, this saves time and more convenient.

Advantages to employees

• There aren't a lot of advantages to employees as not much people are needed for the online banking to function well. They only need few employees but this also gives new jobs to other people like web designing etc.

Disadvantages to the customers

• Just like all other sites, online banking has its disadvantages too. The lack of trust is one of the biggest problems and there is no real relationship with the bank.
• Online banking can be difficult and complicated if you’re a beginner.
• Security concerns are also a massive problem that needs solving; we have no idea how secure the online bank is. They always have doubts as they know that hackers are always around.
• Errors occurs frequently especially with online banking. With just one click of a wrong button customer’s money might be wasted.
• One of the biggest problems is also the digital divide. Other people are really good with computers whilst others knows basic skills therefore they are unable to use computers.
• If help are needed, some customers would rather to a person that read something on the website. Customers still like the feeling of having a face to face negotiation with a banker etc.

Disadvantages to the Bank itself

• For the bank itself, if the online banking is a failure then people or the customers would also think that their actual bank would be a failure or is a failure. This would give the bank a bad image and might lose some of its costumers.
• The cost of creating a website and making sure that the security is high is quite expensive.
• Buying new up to date technologies for the online banks are costly.

Disadvantages for the employees

• Some employees who only need basic computer skill will need constant care and constantly need to be train as technologies are evolving every time.
• Some employees will need to gain new skills in order to work in an online banking and learning this new required skill might take a long time