Online Banking Has Changed the World
If online banking is not conducted responsibly, there are ways for Internet thieves to get their hands on your money.An easy way to avoid this is to take care of your email account. If you are using a free email service, it is important to constantly change your password because if someone hacks into your email and you have been getting bank statements emailed to you, then your bank account information is at risk. So, if you are indeed receiving bank statements in your email please download them and then delete the email.Keep the downloaded statements in a backup drive like a flash drive or a CD and keep that separate from your computer. You could even print them out and file them if you like. But never print out a bank statement only to throw it out un-shredded into the trash. If you want to dispose of sensitive documents, please shred them well.
Another way to increase your security online is to never access your bank account from a cyber cafe or other public computer. This is one of the riskiest things you can do because these computers are almost never secure. A simply keylogger can enable anyone to steal your password and have their way with your finances. So, just like you are careful about telling people your ATM pin number, you must also use your common sense when dealing with Online Banking. A little common sense goes a long way in keeping you money secure.
The concept of online banking as we know it today dates back to the early 1980s, when it was first envisioned and experimented with. However, it was only in 1995 (on October 6, to be exact) that Presidential Savings Bank first announced the facility for regular client use. The idea was quickly snapped up by other banks like Wells Fargo, Chase Manhattan and Security First Network Bank. Today, quite a few banks operate solely via the Internet and have no 'four-walls' entity at all.
In the beginning, its inventors had predicted that it would be only a matter of time before online banking completely replaced the conventional kind. Facts now prove that this was an overoptimistic assessment - many customers still harbor an inherent distrust in the process. Others have opted not to use many of the offered facilities because of bitter experience with online frauds, and inability to use online banking services.Be that as it may, it is estimated that a total of 55 million families in America will be active users of online banking by the year 2010. Despite the fact that many American banks still do not offer this facility to customers, this may turn out to be an accurate prediction. The number of online banking customers has been increasing at an exponential rate.
Initially, the main attraction is the elimination of tiresome bureaucratic red tape in registering for an account, and the endless paperwork involved in regular banking. The speed with which this process happens online, as well as the other services possible by these means, has translated into a literal boom in the banking industry over the last five years. Nor are there any signs of the boom letting up - in historical terms, online banking has just begun. Chase Bank Online Login