Online banking is a growing trend in the modern financial and banking world with more and more consumers lining up to use the internet as their preferred mode of doing banking transactions. By the looks of it, no one can argue the undeniable truth that online banking is here to stay as it gives much convenience to the users. Furthermore, it tends to comply with the green themes that are being pushed ahead in the modern world with minimum carbon footprint in performing a transaction.
As the technology advances, the spectrum of online facilities is also growing with the expectation that the only impossible thing to do with online banking would be the inability to withdraw and deposit money. But, while the technology advances in one front, it does the same in another front which can actually make use of certain vulnerabilities in the said process. These vulnerabilities would allow the modern day thief’s to hack into a bank account and make use of the same technologies in stealing money. Thus, at this point of time, online banking doesn’t have the trust of everyone for it to be considered a safe alternative to traditional banking practices.
Therefore, we should weigh the pros and cons of online banking and determine its application in to our lives without allowing loop holes that can be manipulated by anyone else.
Pros of online banking
Doing transactions online means that it alleviates the necessity to travel, held up in traffic jams, waste fuel, stand in long lines, waste the precious time as well as the need to fill out forms. It gives you the convenience of doing your banking from anywhere in the country or else anywhere in the world for that matter. In most instances, it would charge only a nominal fee and many banks would be encouraging their customers to go online as it would be beneficial for the banks as well.
Online banking also allows the users to keep track of their account balances and the withdrawals that have been taking place. If the facilities are provided, it will also allow the users to pay bills, make transfers, order checkbooks, buy shares or manage other finances…etc which would have taken many hours if it had been done in the traditional way.
Cons of online banking
When considering the security aspects, the most worrisome would be the possibility of identity theft. If a second party can get hold of the user name and the password, it would be an easy task to manipulate funds and clear an account within seconds. At the same time, certain malicious software can be present in ones computer and track usernames and passwords to an account which will be then sent to another place through the internet. Thus, unless you have a secure computer, entering login information in an unknown compute would be a bad idea.
Furthermore, in case the banking site is not functioning due to breakdown or maintenance, the users will not be able to make transactions or else the information shown in the account may not be accurate. Apart from these, in certain instances, when bill payments are done online, there is a possibility of the payment being delayed which would lead to accumulation of late payment fees, fines…etc.
When considering these facts, it is evident that similar to its usefulness, online banking posses a great danger as well. Thus, in order to avoid such dangers, the users need to be careful when handling their username and the password as well as in keeping their computers clean of any malicious software that is considered threatening.